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COMMOWEALTH OF PEMNSTLyANIA-DEFARTMENT OF ASklCULTnEE. 

DIVISION OF FORESTRY. 



IS 



PRELIMINARY REPORT 



OF THK 



Commissioner of Forestry 



FOR 1896. 



il ALSO MldCELLMEODS PAPERS ON FORESTRY CONTAINED U ANNUAL REPORT, 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICDLTURE, FOR 1896. 



BY J. T. ROTHROCK, M. D., 

COMMISSIONER OF FORESTtJY. 



CLARENCE M. BUSCH, 

STATE PRINTER OP PENNSYI^VANfA, 
1897. 



COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLyANIA-DEFARTMENT OF AGRICOLTURE, 

DIVISION OF FORESTRY. 



PRELIMINARY REPORT 



OF THE 



Commissioner of Forestry 



FOR 1896. 



ALSO MISCELLANEODS PAPERS ON FORESTRY CONTAINED IN ANNUAL REPORT, 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOR 1896. 



BY J. T. ROTHROCK,'^ M. D., 

COMMISSIONER OF FORESTRY. 



CLARENCE M. BUSCH, 

STATE PRINTER OP PENNSYLVANIA, 
1897. 



PRELIMINARY REPORT. 



Harrisburg, Pa., January 1, 1897. 
Hon. Thomas J. Edge, Secretary of Agriculture -. 

Sir: I liave the lionoi- to submit the followiug statement of the 
work done in the Division of Forestry, and to suggest some measures 
which appear to be of sufficient importance to merit careful consider- 
ation. 

The brief paper upon forest fires which appeared in the last annual 
report was merely preliminary to a more full consideration of the 
subject. Upon this the division is now engaged, and it is hoped, 
when all the facts are ready for the public, that it will lead to a more 
general attempt to discover and bring to justice those Avho are guilty 
of starting these fires. 

There are, however, certain points upon which immediate legisla- 
tion should be had. For example, under the Act of June 2, 1870 (P. 
L., 1316j, it is declared to be the duty of the county commissioners, 
to appoint persons, under oath, to ferret out and bring to punishment 
all persons who wilfully, or otherwise, cause the burning of timber 
lands and to take measures to have such fires extinguished, where 
it can be done. The expenses are to be paid out of the county 
treasury, the unseated land tax to be the first applied to such ex- 
penses. 

This law has been practicallj' inoperative for more than a quarter 
of a century. It was not because the law was deemed unnecessary 
by the citizens, but because, first, there was no clause compelling 
the county commissioners to appoint detectives to ferret out the of- 
fenders; and second, because if they had done so the county would 
have been required to pay for the services. 

The time has come when public opinion demands that the law 
shall be compulsory upon the county commissioners, and further- 
more, it is no longer doubted that the State has as much to gain 
in preventing forest fires as the counties have, and that, therefore, 
the Commonwealth should share in the cost as well as in the 
benefits. 

At present. Lehigh is the only county in the State which complies 
■jvnth the law, so far as we are informed. Three or four counties offer 
rewards for detection of incendiaries, and the remainder appear to 
wholly ignore the act. 

(3) 



I would, therefore, most respectfully submit for your consideration 
that the Act of June '1, 1870, be amended: First, to compel the com- 
missioners of the various counties to appoint detectives, as specified 
already in the act; and second, to place half of the cost of the ser- 
vices upon the State.* 

Nothing more inequitable appears upon our statute books than 
the law as it now stands. The benefits of continuous, even water 
How, guarding against freshets on the one hand and low water on 
the other, accrue to the entire community. The most potent factor 
in ensuring thia desirable condition is the forest cover upon the head- 
waters of the streams. The counties with the largest areas of 
timber, or even brush land^ are those most active in guarding the 
water flow of the State, but they also have the smallest population. 
For the State's good they are, as the law now is, compelled to pro- 
tect the largest areas, to pay out the most for the common good,^ 
while on the one hand they have the smallest income by tax, and on 
the other they receive the least from the State for the service ren- 
dered. The counties with the largest revenues would never feel 
the drain upon them in protecting their forest areas, while a similar 
service would keep Pike or Forest counties in a condition of bank- 
ruptcy. 

It is now well understood that the actual loss to the State each' 
year from forest fires is enormous (greatly exceeding any cost of pro- 
tection), but the destruction of young timber, of leaf mould and of 
good soil from the same cause is, if possible, a vastly greater 
calamity. In short, it is so great that it is no mere figure of speech 
to say it threatens the continued prosperity of the Commonwealth.. 
In the present state of public inforaiation upon this important topio 
it would seem to be the duty of the State to keep continually before 
its citizens the fact that forest fires are a public foe. To this end, 
I would ''espectfully suggest that constables be required by law to 
r. port at eaoh court of quarter sessions the number of fires within 
their districts, the season at which they occurred, the causes thereof, 
th? damage done, and the measures taken to apprehend those whoi 
caused them, the said report to be made in duplicate upon blanks^ 
furnished by the Commissioner of Forestry, and that one copy be re- 
tained by the court and the other be forwarded promptly by 
mail to the Commissioner of Forestry, and that the constables be paid 
jointly by the counties and the Commonwealth for the service.f 

In this connection, it might be well to call attention to the fact 
that in some instances it was found to be impossible to obtain fromi 
county officials information, which it was not less for the good of 
\\\e countv than of the Commonwealth, should be published. With 



• Act of July 15, 1897, amends act as siigBested. 

t Act of March 30, 1897, make constables ex-officio fire wardens. 



your permission, 1 would suggest that not only would the work of 
this division be advanced, but that of the whole Department (and 
possibly of other departments) if there were had some legal relief in 
this respect.* 

By Act of Legislature (June IS, 1883, P. L. 112), the county commis- 
sioners, through the assessors, were required to furnish annuallyj 
upon the first day of June, "a full statement of all property taxable 
for county purposes, showing the real and personal in separate 
columns" — "the same to be enclosed by mail to the Secretary of 
Internal Affairs." 

The returns are made upon blanks furnished by the Department of 
Internal Affairs, which (blanks) contain separate columns for cleared 
land and timber land. In the report of the Secretary of Internal 
Affairs, Part II, for 1895, pages 316a and 217a, is a very clear show- 
ingi of the insufficiency of this classification of the area of the State 
for the purposes of that Department. With the best intention and' 
even after laborious effort to report the exact ratio of cleared and 
timbered land, there might still be wide discrepancies in the state-* 
ments of two observers, if placed in the same district. For example, 
take the latest statistics from the county of Wayne, and we find 
that the proportion of timber land to that of the whole county is 
placed at 9.2 per cent. Whereas, in the adjoining county of Lacka- 
wanna, the proportion of timber land to the entire area of the county 
is placed at 16 per cent. It must be clear to any observer passing 
through these counties that AYayne, as a matter of fact, has a larger 
proportion of its area in real lumber than Lackawanna. The dis- 
crepancy here arises from the fact that some of fhe assessors in 
Wayne county failed, probably, to consider hard wood, such as 
beech, birch and maple, as timber, because it had so little value 
in the market, or was so little used for purposes of construction. 
The "acid factories" have been unusually active in that region be- 
cause of the abundance of these woods. 

The real fact is that a very large proportion, even of our country 
citizens, fail to discriminate sufficiently between the different kinds 
of trees. Of course this lack of exact knowledge is, as a rule, even 
more marked among those who have spent their entire lives in the* 
towns. This condition of affairs is humiliating, but it has to be 
reckoned with in all of our reports. Much as this division desires 
exact specific knowledge, it is thought better to suggest a classifi- 
cation of the wild or wooded lands not under cultivation, which will 
now lead to the least error and encourage the hope that in the near 
future we may be able to insist upon a more exact classification. 

I would suggest, first, that for the purposes of the Department of 

* Act approved April U, IgOT, makes it the duty of county officials to furnish information asked for. 



Agriculture, land which is now in sod, oi- in crops, or which has been 
cultivated within three years, or wliieh is about to be cultivated for 
the first time, be regarded as cleared land. 

Second. That land not in either of the above conditions, but cov- 
ered with a growth of shrubbery less than 15 feet high, be designated 
as brush land, and this be divided into two classes; i. e., valuable, if it 
promises to mature into timber; or, valueless, if it gives no promise 
of producing timber. 

Third. That land in a woody growth which is over lo feet high, 
be designated as timber land, and divided (a) into evergreen, stating 
whether pine (white or yellow), hemlock, spruce or cedar predomi- 
nates; and (b) into hard wood, stating whether oak, hickory, chest- 
nut, beech, birch, maple, poplar, basswood or cherry predominates; 
adding whether this timber is best adapted to production of ties, 
sawed timber, or of no use except as fuel. Is the timber in this 
third division one-fourtli, one-half, or 1 luce-fourths grown, or is it 
mature? 

There appears to be nothing in tliis which a man of ordinary intel- 
ligence could not readily place in proper form if a proper blank were 
furnished him. It is confessedly superficial, but it is far in advance 
of what we have hitherto been able to obtain. 

It is fairly a question whether or not it is wise to allow the re- 
demption within two years of land sold for taxes. Asa rule, those to 
whom such land belongs are not straightened in circumstances. The 
redemption chiuse simply, in man}- instances, interferes with im- 
provement of the forest conditions of such land which can be under- 
taken none too soon. Furthermore, if that redemption clause were 
repealed, it is more than likely that, very often, if not in most cases, 
the tax would be paid, rather than allow the land to go to sale. The 
county, at least, would then receive benefits from the change. 

The whole question of taxes in relation to timber lands is as 
important as it is anomalous. It may be briefly stated at the outset 
that the only class of property which existing law compels an owner 
to destroy in self-protection is timber. There are thousands of 
acres within the limits of this Commonwealth which might have been 
(in the interest of the State) in timber to this day, if uncertain pro- 
tection against fiie and certain demands for taxes had not driven the 
owners to remove the timber. If it is true, as asserted, and as the 
experience of those nations with which we must compare ourselves 
seems to sliow, that a state must in its own interest have a certain 
(variable) proportion of its area in timber, or suffer in lack of it, 
then our laws defeat their own purpose by driving the citizen to de- 
spoil rather than to strengthen the State. An illustration may be 
worth more than any abstract statement, however clear or pointed. 

In one of the interior counties of the State there was situated 



a tract of land covered with valuable hemlock. For the purposes 
of taxation this land Avas assessed at the rate of two dollars an acre, 
then raised to four, then to six, when the owner protested. The fol- 
lowing year it was assessed at eight dollars an acre. Protest made 
was unavailing and the owner immediately put in mills, removed 
the timber and allowed the county to take the land. 

The plea for increasing the tax was that the township depended 
on that land for the money to spend on its roads. What was the 
result? Removal of the timber left no tax for the roads, and gave 
the county a large area of unproductive land. It was not solely the 
payment of the taxes which drove the owner to remove the timber, 
but because after paying the taxes he had no protection against 
the fires which the State allows to go, year after year, unchecked. 
Here is the proper place to call attention to the fact that it is no 
longer true that fire does but little damage in green timber. The 
time was when it was practically true. That time has passed, for 
in this State so large a portion is already bare of trees, barren and 
sun-exposed, that evaporation removes the moisture from those areas, 
and then from even the woods, until in seasons of ordinary summer 
drought vigorous forests may be killed where they stand. One in- 
stance of this, in Clearfield county, comes to mind now. Another 
example was furnished three years ago in the southwestern part of 
Wayne county, where a very valuable tract of hemlock, which was 
specially guarded, was destroyed in spite of all the protection which 
could be furnished. A condition so anomalous as this indicated 
cannot endure in the larger intelligence of the near future. What 
the remedy shall be is a question which merits, and doubtless will 
receive, careful consideration from our legislators before long. It 
will press for a solution.* 

A most important problem presents itsolf for consideration; 
namely, that of forest reservations. Strip it o? collateral ideas and 
the fact at the bottom of the whole question is — the State must 
have a due proportion of woodland. It is an absolute condition upon 
which not only our prosperity but the very protection of the surface 
of the State depends. 

The first inquiry following this is: How can it be most surely, 
speedily and economically produced, by the State itself directly own- 
ing and directing the machinery, or by the State making it possible 
for the citizen to do this? 

While it is true that in Pennsylvania local conditions will make 
it to the advantage of the Commonwealth that the citizen should be- 
come a timber producer and Tiimself see that it was guarded from 



* By act approved May 25. 1897, there is allowed a maximum tax rebate of forty-flve cents per acre 
on not more than fifty acres to each farm property owner, providing there are fifty trees to the acre 
■wliich average eight Inches in diameter at s\x feet above the ground. 



8 

trespass and from fire, it is nevertheless true that the State shouhl 
be the largest producer, because it has the largest interest, because 
the century required to mature a crop of trees is as nothing to it, 
but is disheartening to the individual, and chiefly because in the 
land which the State should own there are involved possibilities for 
good or evil, to every citizen, which are too vital to be trusted tot 
any man or to any set of men. 

The idea is not new to our people. It may be well to note howi 
far it has progressed and assumed the favor of a popular demand. 

1st. The State Grange of Pennsylvania, in the last two annual 
meetings, passed resolutions calling upon the Legislature to provide 
State forestry reservations. 

2d. The Maritime Exchange, of Philadelphia, has petitioned the 
Legislature for State forestry reservations. 

3d. The Board of Trade, of Philadelphia, has done the same. 

4th. The Pennsylvania Forestry Association, with a membership 
in every county in the Commonwealth, has joined in the request. 

5th. The Engineer Club, of Philadelphia, has also asked for it. 

6th. Almost every leading newspaper in the Commonwealth has 
repeatedly, editorially and otherwise, joined in the general call for 
State forestry reservations. 

7th. Various leading industrial journals, such as the "Manufac- 
turer," have been outspoken in their demand that in their interest 
and protection the State assume control of the high water sheds of 
the Commonwealth, where the water power which they require is 
produced. 

It will be seen that already a most respectable following is earn- 
estly asking the State to act in this direction. 

If it were new or untried in this country, we might well pause be- 
fore taking the initiative; but it is neither. The adjacent State 
of New York has been the i)ioneer in this movement, and secured as 
public property already a large portion of the Adirondack region. 
The wisdom of the action was voted upon three years by the people, 
and of all the constitutional amendments brought before that tri- 
bunal for their sanction, the one measure which passed unchal- 
lenged was that in favor of the State forestry reservations. Within 
a month the question Avas again placed before the people as to 
whether the State should allow settlements by cottagers of any part 
of the forest reserve, and so anxious were the citizens to confirroj 
forever the safety of these reservations that they defeated the con- 
stitutional amendment, which made an invasion possible, by the 
largest majority (345,000) ever given to any measure. State or Na- 
tional, in New York. It was most remarkable that on this issue 
the average citizen and the largest manufacturing interests were in 
perfect, earnest, working harmony. Almost every great newspaper 



in the State called and kept calling upon the citizens to defeat thej 
proposed constitutional amendment. The threatened danger pro- 
duced the most universal popular rising and protest which the Eni- 
pire State ever witnessed. 

There must be some reason for this. Such things do not come) 
about by chance. It would be almost impossible to have produced 
such an overwhelming sentiment by any party machinery. 

The fact is that the cause of alarm sounded in New Hampshire! 
by the Hon. T. Jefferson Ooolidge, was already working in New York. 
It is worth dwelling upon. 

I have been at the pains of verifying the following abstract which 
is taken from the "Manufacturer," Philadelphia, October 31st, 1896. 
As I can neither condense nor improve upon the presentation, I sub- 
mit it for vour consideration: 



FORESTS AND FACTORIES. 



"In his annual report to the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, 
whose great mills are located at Manchester, New Hampshire, util- 
izing, as those below at Nashua and Lowell do, the splendid wateri 
power of the Merrimack river, the treasurer of the company, Hon. 
T. Jefferson Coolidge, of Boston, stated some important facts con- 
cerning the usefulness of the river for manufacturing purposes. He 
describes first, the great freshet in the Merrimack, on April 16, 1895, 
when the water rose to the highest point that until then had ever 
been known, injuring the Amoskeag dam, and compelling extensive 
and costly repairs. He then describes the terrific freshet of March 
2, 1896, which rose 1| feet higher than even that of the preceding 
year, and which compelled the stoppage of the mills, with their 
6,000 operatives, for some time, and would have done immense dam- 
age to the mills, had it not been for the strong repair constructionj 
of the previous year. 

" 'I need not say,' proceeds Mr. Coolidge, 'what a terrible loss to! 
the city of Manchester such accidents are, and how desirable it is 
to take any measures which may diminish the probability of future, 
and higher freshets. When you consider that the Merrimack has for 
the past few summers been lower than in previous years, it is evi- 
dent that some cause is at work turning the stream into a torrent 
with long droughts and fearful discharges of water.' 

"There is but one explanation, he further says of this phenomenon. 

It is simply, 'the cutting down of the forests around the headwaters 

of the Merrimack, the Pemigewasset and other affluents. The woods 

hold back the water and allow it to triclde slowly into the streams; 

1* 



10 

cut dowa the woods and the rain running rapidly over the surface 
of the ground, which is baked bj the sun or frozen hard by the 
winter's cold, pours all at once into the streams, turns them inta 
roaring torrents, and finds its way all at once into the Merrimack^ 
sweeping everything before it. In a few days the river sinks rap- 
idly and becomes in time of drought an insignificant stream. Had. 
the forest been left, no sudden discharge of water would have taken 
place, and all through low water, streams would have trickled 
through the woods and swollen the Merrimack when it was low.' 

"Remarking upon the experience of European countries in this 
matter, especially France, along the valley of the Rhone, by which 
they were compelled to adopt stringent measures to protect the for- 
ests along the rivers and thdir affluents, Mr. Coolidge proceeds to 
point out the great seriousness of the subject to such a city as 
Manchester, and such a state as New Hampslijre. It is the power of 
her rivers which gives New Hampshire its greatest importance. The 
damage done, he declares, is already most serious, 'and if this state 
of things continues, manufacturing by the water power of the 
Merrimack will become, in my judgment, impossible. No new mills 
will be put up and the old ones will have to use steam, which places 
them at a great disadvantage with regard to other manufacturing 
cities where coal is much cheaper owing to less transportation. Our 
coal has to be carried to the seaboard at Baltimore or Newport News, 
transported by water to Portsmouth at a cost ranging from sixty 
cents to |2 a ton, and taken by car to Manchester at an addi- 
tional price of twenty-five cents for unloading and seventy-five cents 
for freight from Portsmouth to Manchester.' 

"The strength of such manufactories as the Amoskeag Mills con- 
sists largely in their situation where nature pours over their water- 
wheels, at the lowest possible cost, the power that moves their 
spindles and looms. If these water powers are to be destroyed, such 
industries will be practically destroyed. If steam must be used, 
and coal brought from the distant mines, the condition will be revo- 
lutionized. Compared with Falls River, Manchester is at a disad- 
vantage of |1 a ton in the purchase of coal, and compared with mills 
in the South, |2 a ton. 'I appeal to you, gentlemen,' earnestly says 
Mr, Coolidge, 'for the interest of New Hampshire, which depends on 
the success of the manufacturing corporations situated on the Mer- 
rimack and the other streams of the State, to exert your utmost in- 
fluence to induce the next Legislature to protect the forests re- 
maining.'" 

You will recognize that this most vital relation of the forests to 
the water powers of the State is not new here. It was most fully 
brought out by the Commissioner of Forestry and enforced by nho- 
tographic illustrations at the meeting of the State Roard of Agricul- 



11 

lure, held in Bethlehem in June, 1893, What gives, however, special 
weight to it now is the fact that the statement above quoted is from 
a practical man, with large business interests, and is his well 
weighed, deliberate utterance, after the threatened danger had de- 
veloped into an accomplished fact. Surely, it may be regarded aa 
bejond the dictation of mere sentiment, and as a timely and needed 
warning to us. If the condition of things which Mr. Cbolidge depicts 
as existing in New Hampshire calls for State interference there to 
protect the manufacturing interests, a similar condition here equally 
demands that our State shall interfere to arrest the calamities which 
have already threatened to wrecS and injure the prosperity of an- 
other State. 

It may be taken for granted that in the near future Pennsylvania 
will follow the example already set by the State of New York. 

The question remaining is, how shall the land be acquired? It 's 
in vain to hope that the Commonwealth will come into possession of 
any area worthy to be called a state forestry reservation upon which 
a mature forest now stands, <for such no longer exists within our* 
limits. Every such body of timber is reduced in size, and circum- 
scribed by clearings. The very utmost tliat we can do will be to 
secure the location and to produce the forest. We will be wise if 
we obtain the place before we are obliged to produce the soil as well 
as the trees. Even now it is probable that it will cost the Common- 
wealth as much to obtain the naked, treeless area as it received for 
the same ground when it was covered with timber, out of which for- 
tunes have grown. It is quite clear that as the necessity of these 
lands to the State become more and more real, they will be held 
higher hj the owners, even though each succeeding year has ren-- 
dered the soil more and more impoverished. Neither will there ever 
be a time when the demand made upon the State Treasury will be so 
light as to render the acquisition of the needed land easier than now 
if they are to be acquired by exercise of the right of eminent domain 
and subsequently paid for. 

The state of New York acquired most of its present reservationi 
in the Adirondack (I believe), by sale for unpaid taxes. 

This raises the question as tO" whether Pennsylvania might not 
do the same. It is within bounds to say that there is a million of 
acres within our limits upon which the owners now refuse to pay 
taxes. Or to speak exactly, we may put it thus, that "in 1894, the 
amount of land, seated and unseated, advertised to be sold for taxes 
in the different counties of the Commonwealth, so far as heard from, 
was upwards of 1,. 500,000, or 2..3.58 square miles." These figures 
come from lists furnislied by count}' treasurers. This land lies in 
great part within the limits which the Forestry Commission has 
suggested as being suitable for State forestry ])urposes. One may 



12 

then readily see that if the State were to acquire title to all suchJ 
lands, but few years would elapse before either taxes would be paid 
to the counties, or the State would be in possession of all the land* 
required for its forestry purposes. The chief objection to land so 
acquired would be: It would at first be more or less scattered and 
therefore relatively costly to protect and manage. 

It is no longer a problem as to whether forest lands, under proper: 
State management, can, or should be, made a source of revenue to the 
government. The magnificent results attending the forestry opera- 
tions of Germany, Sweden and Norway, and England in India, leave 
no doubt that no other line of public policy returns a surer or larger 
revenue, involving at the same time less injury to the individual 
or less loss to the government. That it can be made to pay here we 
may infer from the prices which are offered to New York for spruce 
grown under state protection.* 

There remains yet one more aspect of this many sided question. 
Communal forests are managed in Germany in local interests. To 
adapt this statement to our own conditions it would appear a.s 
though a county having a considerable area of land thrown upon) 
it by non-payment of taxes, might under judicious care and protec- 
tion, in a comparatively few years, obtain a very large portion ofl 
its needed revenue from sale of wood from such land. The whole 
success of such an attempt would lie in honest, intelligent manage?- 
ment; but it would relieve the citizens of the burdens of taxation| 
just in proportion as it was successful. 

There are towns in Germany which have made themselves practi' 
cally free from taxation by the sale of forest products. The fact ia 
an unfortunate commentary on the methods we have employed to 
reach our present condition, as a State and as a Nation, that though 
there will never come a time when our best kinds of timber will cease 
to have a value, that the true Northern yellow pine (Pinus mitis) 
has practically disappeared from our forests, and there is reason to 
fear that in the very near future yellow poplar, black walnut and, 
wild black cherry, hemlock and white pine will cease to have large 
commercial value here, because of scarcity. 

The report of the Forestry Commission has been so kindly re-, 
ceived and is in such demand that the edition will probably be 
speedily exhausted. 

The Commissioner of Forestry proposes to prepare the following^ 
papers as speedily as possible: 

First. Report on Forest Fires. 

*Since the above was written tlie lieaislature has passed, and the Governor has approved, two acts 
providing; tor Stjite Forestry Keservations -one b7 purchase of a reservation of not less than 40,000 
acres at the head waters of each of our three principal rivers (act of May 2.'). IS'.'Tl: the other by the 
State paying the taxes on land sold at treasurers' and commissioners' sales for taxes (act of March 30, 
1897. ) 



13 

Second. Report on Walnut Tree, producing fruit with the outer 
covering of the hickory nut. 

Third. Report on the Engle Chestnut Orchard. 
Fourth. Report on Some Troublesome Weeds. 
Fifth. Abstract from Recent German Forestry Reports. 
Sixth. The "Yearly Cut" of Timber in Pennsylvania. 
Seventh, Forests as Soil Formers and Soil Preservers. 
I am sir, with respect, 
Your most obedient servant, 

J. T. ROTHROOK, 
Commissioner of Forestry. 



,^^ 



^^m^m^". 






(14) 



COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA— DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
DIVISION OF FORESTRY. 



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS 



FORESTRY 



ANNUAL REPORT, 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

FOR 1896 



BY J. T. ROTHROCK, M. D., 

COMMISSIONER OF FORESTRY. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Relation of Forests to the Farmer ly 

Removal of the Fertile Soil from the Farm bv Water, 32 

A Walnut Freak ■ 41 

Partial Abstract Statement of Timber Cut during the Year 1896, in Penn- 
sylvania, 44 

Partial Summary of Timber Cut by Counties 46 

Chestnut Possibilities in Pennsylvania 4y 

Two Weeds 52 

Losses by Fire in'Pennsylvania in the Year 1896, so far as heard from, .... 54 

(15) 




(16> 



EELATION OF FORESTS TO TBE FARMER. 



Nothing stands absolutely alone in itself and b}^ itself. Every 
created thing has its relations to other things and forces. Indeed, 
the whole orderly procession of nature is the result of forces which 
have become; mutually associated and inter-dependent. It sometimes 
happens that the most obvious purposes are in reality the least 
important. The forests furnish a striking example of this. If ask\>d 
to name their uses the first answer would almost certainly he: for 
lumber and fuel. Yet in the eternal scheme these are the very least 
of all the important purposes they subserve, and the results of these 
uses are probably the least enduring of all which spring from the 
forests. To obtain these utilities the trees, as a living body, must be 
sacrificed. They cease to operate as a portion of any natural plan 
the very moment they become either lumber or fuel. Not only so, but 
in serving either of these purposes they compete with substances 
which, to a greater or less extent, could be substituted for them. 
In such functions trees are in strong contrast with themselves, when 
we remember that as living things their uses are unique, and that 
nothing which they do for the rest of creation could be so well done 
by anything else. 

Without thought, we regard the earth as having been always tim- 
ber-clad, until human energy opened the clearings in which crops 
were to be produced. Such, however, is not the fact. All science is 
in accord with the belief that forest trees, as we now know them, 
are the end of a long line of plant life. When extensive areasj 
emerged from the waves to become dry land, and at length the abode 
of human beings, nothing of higher form than a rO'Ck moss or a 
lichen was there to represent the vegetable kingdom. Indeed we are 
driven to this conclusion by many arguments, and by none more forci- 
bly than by the fact that soil capable o-f supporting a large-sized tree 
did not exist. There was no soft substance into which the roots 
co'uld penetrate to fix the trunk in an erect position, or from which it 
could draw the needed nourishment, which the air failed to supply. 
Our large trees won their hold upon the earth only after lichens, 
mosses and ferns and palms had preceded and prepared the w^y for 
them. Even then there remained ages upon ages during which we 
should have recognized among the stately forms none of the familiar 
trees of our own time. Whatever possibilities of lumber or fuel were 
in the stick were to remain until the earth, largely through the agency 

(17) 

2 



18 

of trees, became fitted for its final occupant — man. Then, and then 
onlj, almost as an afterthought, the possibilities of lumber and fuel 
appeared. 

The object of this preliminary statement is not in any sense to 
undervalue the importance of either lumber or fuel, for they are 
most important portions of the foundation upon which human pros- 
perity has been built, but to emphasize the fact that forests had a 
history of development before there was a man upon earth, and that 
they have been largely instrumental in preparing it for his home. 

In further discussing this subject it will be convenient to con- 
sider: 

First — How forests came. 

Second — What they have done in the past. 

Third — What they may and shO'uld do in the future. 

Fourth — Can they be spared? 

1. How Forests Came. — Any conception of the early history of 
our globe involves ideas which are strange to some persons and in- 
credible to others. Briefly stated, however, the earth is regarded 
as a ball which has cooled down from a molten or semi-molten con- 
dition, and that in its interior there still remains a core of fire. Such 
we assume to have been in part the history of the other bodies 
floating around us in space. The process of solidification and cool- 
ing was not only a grndnal, but a very slow one. The first plant life 
was probably in the water which collected in the depressions on 
the earth's surface. Later those gray, scale-like masses, which we 
call lichens, or rock moss, appeared on the dry surface of the rock. 
The reproductive bodies of these lichens are microscopic in size and 
of the simplest character, so far as a structure is concerned. Cast 
loosely upon the rock, any blast of wind might carry them away. 
Indeed, many of them are thus transplanted. But they have the 
power to dissolve the substance of the rock, form a minute nest for 
themselves, such as befits their size, and then to produce threads, by 
growth, which eventually unite with small green bodies, likewise of 
microscopic size, and form a living crust on the surface of the rock. 
The growth of such a lichen is exceedingly slow; and, therefore, its 
life is correspondingly long. When, however, it does die, there is left 
behind a thin stratum — the beginning of a soil — the nest in which 
another lichen may begin an easier life, or where, possibly, some 
plant of higher organization may appear. It is not to be supposed that 
there was no other force at work in forming the first soil. The weight 
of a falling raindrop may loosen a stony particle. Snow, when it at 
length could remain on the earth's surface; ice and frost each did 
their share in rending the rocks, and in proportion as these solid 
masses became smaller, the work of soil ])rodnction became easier 
and more rapid, because an increasingly greater surface was ex- 



19 

posed to the action of these disintegrating forces. Mosses in all 
probability came later, grew along with the lichens, and dying, 
added their remains to increase the bulk of that union of broken 
down rock and vegetable matter which we call soil. Ferns and club 
mosses, both of goodly size, sprang up where the lichen and the moss 
had prepared the way. Palms succeeded these, and after a long 
interval the familiar trees of •Mr own forest appeared upon the 
scene. 

Such, in brief, are the stages leading up to the forests which we 
assume the right to destroy at will, as if blotting them from the sur- 
face of a country could be effected without doing a most serious 
injury to an order of events which had required vast periods of time 
to mutually adjust. 

2. What Have Forests Done in the Past? — By this we mean be- 
fore man appeared upon the earth, and apparently in anticipation 
of his coming. The assertion has been made that a pro'bable cause 
of the disappearance of the luxuriant vegetation of the coal-forming 
period was that the plants themselves had extracted so much of the 
carbonic acid gas, or carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere that their 
successors were no longer able to live. If that be so, then we may be 
well assured that they were making the air, by so far, more fit for 
animal life. The question, however, here is not as to the fact, but as 
to the extent of its operation. There is not only no doubt whatever 
that all plant life does make an atmosphere better fitted for us, but 
that it is the most active known agent in maintaining that salubrity. 
Most other things, living or dead, tend to abstract oxygen from, and 
many, in addition, pour out carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In 
fact, so long as plant life is vigorous, active and engaged in increas- 
ing the sum total of vegetable substance, just so long plants, and 
our long-lived trees especially, are enriching the atmosphere for our 
uses. It is only when they are flowering, fruiting or decaying that 
this statement is reversed and a surplus of carbon dioxide given 
off. Just here the special value of the trees becomes strikingly ap- 
parent. In them decay is usually long postponed. The flowers are 
but a small proportion of the surface of the tree, and the maturing 
fruit is even less. The preponderance of the healthful agency over 
the noxious becomes at once clear in this light. 

Hills and valleys are produced in two ways. By the one process, as 
the crust of the earth cooled it contracted on the central core. Thf- 
diameter of the earth is decreasing with each successive age, just 
in proportion as the loss of internal heat allows it to contract. The 
outer crust (upon which we live) wrinkles, as it contracts, as an 
apple does, when, from evaporation, it parts with the moisture con- 
tained under the skin. These wrinkles on the earth's surface, which 
appear so vast to us, are the mountains and the valleys. Taken, 



'20 

however, in the measure of the earth's diameter, they are ridicu- 
lously small. If you had a globe eleven and one-half feet in diam- 
eter, a raised line one-sixteenth of an inch high upon it would about 
rei^resent the height of our mountains to the diameter of the globe, 
and the one-thousandth of the thickness of that tiny line (equal to 
one-sixteen thousandth of an inch) would approximately represent 
the depth of the surface which we know as soil, and with which we, 
as food producers for the rest of the earth's population, have to do. 

If these folds, or ridges and mountains, did not exist, the earth's 
surface would be a monotonous plain, practically everywhere equally 
distant from the centre of the earth, except in so far as that dis- 
tance was modified by the differences between the polar and the 
equatorial diameters of the eartli. Our streams would tlow slowly- - 
in the Northern hemisphei-e toward the northeast, and in the South- 
ern hemisphere toward the southeast, and the large masses of 
water would gravitate to the poles, as those would be the portions 
of the earth least remote from the earth's centre. The continental 
laud masses would tend to be in the equatoi'ial diameter of the globe 
because the land there would be the highest, i. e., most distant from 
the earth's centre. 

The introduction, however, of these shrinkage folds, which we now 
recognize as mountains. com])letely changes these relations. Water 
will flow downward along the lines of least resistance, and as it Hows 
will wear away the soil first and the rock next, in exact proportion, 
other things being equal, to the rapidity of its flow. We see this in 
the washes on our hillsides and in the constantly changing courses 
of our stream channels. Hut other things are not equal. If they were, 
the tendency to the formation of ravines and gulches, by erosion, 
would not exist, and everywhere O'Ver an equal slope the wearing 
away of the soil would proceed evenly, and the unbroken character 
of the country would in great measure be preserved, or more ])roperly 
speaking, the tendency to an even reduction of our mountains would 
everywhere exist. 

As it is, vast discrepancies in the character of soils and rocks 
occur; some yielding to erosion by flowing water more easily than 
others — and it is along such lines of least resistance that currents of 
equal velocity carve out their valley channels to the ocean, following, 
of course (in most instances) the trend o.f the larger valleys made by 
the folds in the earth's crust. 

The one factor which Is potent in giving character to the earth's 
surface, and which we can indirectly control, is the rapidity of the 
water flow. Under natural conditions, in a timbered country, the 
normal tendency of the water would be to the least rapidity of flow, 
because of the liindrances afforded, directly and indirectly, by the 



21 

trees. This fact has been well put by Professor Shaler.* "In a single 
day a tilled field may lose from its surface more soil than would be 
taken from it in a century of its forest state." 

The above opinion is unquestionably true. The principle is, tO' put 
it in the words of Major Raymond, of the United States Engineer 
Corps, "as well established as any other in physical science." Since 
then it is so important, it is worth a consideration in detail. Briefly 
the proposition may be thus stated: 

Forests by retarding- the rapidity of the water flow tend, in so far, 
to prevent the washing away of the surface soil, which is one of the 
most important elements in agricultural prosperity. 

The expression, "pelting of the storm," is no mere figure of speech. 
Those who have felt the weight of a falling rain-drop in an open 
country will readily recognize that it brings with it a positively ap- 
preciable force. If careful observation is made where the drop falls 
on the earth, it will be noted that it has loosened the soil and made 
a miniature excavation. The water of the fallen drop immediately 
dissolves (at least in part) this loosened soil and begins its jO'urney 
downward. Careful observation will also show that in an ordinary 
uncovered space, each drop does an appreciable work — if the soil is 
at all soft. The aggregate of the fallen drops produces the inunda- 
tion. The aggregate o-f the soil so removed produces the muddiness 
of the stream, whether that be very marked, or the contrary. In 
other words, the muddiness of the flowing water is the measure of 
valuable, soluble soil removed from the country. It is mostly soil 
in condition to be used in one way or another by those growing 
plants which we denominate crops and in whose abundance we find 
the reward of our labor.f If that soluble portion of the surface of the 
earth were infinite, or more exactly, if the most fertile part of it,. 
which the plants most need, were inexhaustible, we could contem- 
l»late its removal from our fields calmly. But instead of being 
abundant, there are but few places on the earth's surface where there 
is enough of it to enable the farmer for any considerable period toi 
pursue his calling without impoverishing his land, unless he takes^ 
active, costly measures to restore it. The farmer does not create that 
fertility. Whether it comes to him through the medium of his barn- 
yard, or by purchase as an artificial fertilizer, he is simply using 
over and again the oM elements which he has transported back to his 
tilled acres. Hence the wisdom, the actual imperative necessity of 
holding on to that fertility by all possible methods. This, however, 
is not all. The increased rapidity with which water drains out of a 
treeless country is a prolific cause of disaster, not only to« those parts 

♦Aspects of the Earth, p. 275. 

tThe word soluble here is used not in its chemical sense; but in the sense 
commonly accepted— i. e.. the particles of soil are held suspended in the water. 



22 

whence the flood came, hut to those into which it flowsi. Every small 
stream furnishes an example of this. The severe dashes of rain which 
were so common during the past summer in countless instances over 
the State, visibly, palpably, before our eyes, washed the finest, best 
soil from our fields, where it was needed, into the public roads 
where it lay first as mud and then as dust, to the detriment of 
travel. The ordinary brook, unless it be so narrow that every shower 
flushes and scours it out completely, will show that the sediment 
from higher up has clogged its course, and what has taken place in 
this small way is repeated on a grander scale after the tributaries 
have become confluent into a main channel. The delta of the Nile, 
and in our own country, the delta of the Mississippi, alike are made 
up of soil which has followed the course of the river from a greater 
or less distance to its final destination — the tide water; and silt and 
soil of the same quality which clogs the channels of the streams above 
the tide water is mostly fertility on its way to the tide level. Let me 
again quote from Shaler, 1, c. p. 275: "Brief as has been our use of 
the American land, a perceptible portion of it, probably as much as 
one-hundredth part of the tillable area, has been reduced to a state 
of destitution which it will require ages to repair — which indeed is 
scarcely reparable by the hand of man." 

Not only are these facts well known and proven, but the laws gov- 
erning the rate of water flow requisite to transport material of dif- 
ferent sizes can be clearly stated. Thus, in the upper part of the 
stream bed where the water flows as a torrent, massive rocks may 
be driven before the flood. Lower down as the current slackens Its 
pace the rocks will have been left behind and simply pebbles will be 
found; and still lower, where the water flow has been reduced in 
speed to that of an average river, the wash will be simply sand and 
soil. The figures startle us, but no less authority than Dana has 
quoted from Humphrey's and Abbott's repoit the statement that in 
an average year the Mississippi carries to the Mexican Gulf an 
amount of silt equal to 812,500,000,000 pounds. This would cover 
241 square miles evenly one foot deep. Geikie (Great Ice Age, page 
.'?15) states it thus: "Then again we have to bear in mind that the 
whole surface of the country is being subjected to the abrading action 
of running water. Under the influences of rain, soil is continually 
traveling down from higher to lower levels; rills and brooklets are 
gouging out deep trenches in the sub-soils and soil rocks; streams 
and rivers are constantly wearing away their banks and transporting 
sediment to the sea. The gravel and sand and silt that pave the 
numerous water courses are but the wreck and ruin of the land." 

It is then, under this view of the case, most important for >is fo 
bear in mind that of all the substances essential to successful, contin- 
uous cultivation of the earth, the one thing most difficult to restore 



23 

is this soil, and that the one agency most active in reproducing it, 
and most valuable in restraining its waste, is the forest cover to the 
land. 

If this were the only function of the forests it would be ampK 
reason for throwing around them every protective care which was 
not inconsistent with their legitimate uses for lumber and for fuel. 
It is, ho-wever, but a part of what they accomplish. Not only do they 
mechanically restrain the destructive force of the surface water, but 
by that very act they give it a better chance to soak into and sat- 
urate the adjacent earth. The downward pointing roots furthermore 
serve as lines along which, with increased facility, the water pene- 
trates to the depths beneath, where it is safe from immediate evap- 
oration, and where it continues (possibly for months) to nourish the 
smaller streams and to maintain the perpetual flow of our springs. 
It is further to be observed that this water so saved is in immediate 
proximity to the s.malle.'^t rootlets, and is by them absorbed, taken 
up through trunk and branches to the leaves, where it is evaporated 
or transpired into the open air. In this flow upward from the earth 
it not only carries the nutrient matters of the soil, to form the 
fabric of the tree, but it returns in the form of vapor, to moderat<') 
the temperature, a quantity of moisture which might well seem fab- 
ulous. Thus it has been estimated by Dr. Evermayer that a beech 
tree "fifty to sixty years old would transpire about twenty-two 
])Ounds of water daily." Multiply this by four or five hundred trees 
and that by the number of growing days in the year and the immense 
volume of water which an acre of forest land may furnish through the 
leaves of the trees is at once apparent. Such an acre would restore 
to the atmosphere during the six months, from April 1st to the last 
days of September, about one thousand tons of water by evapora- 
tion and transpiration from the leaves, and in the same basis a square 
mile would furnish 040,000 tons of water, or reduce the number of 
trees one half, and each square mile during the growing season 
would return, to the air, over .300,000 tons of water. 

It has never been shown that this tremendous volume of water, 
filtered O'Ut from the earth to the clouds, through the trees, actually 
increases rainfall over the region. But it does bring the atmosphere 
there, by so much, nearer the point of saturation with moisture, and 
just so much less water from othei* sources is needed to load the air 
with moisture enough to cause a downpour of rain. 

There is, however, a relation of the utmost importance to the 
humidity of the country, in which forests play a large part. It is 
in preventing, directly and indirectly, the rapid evaporation of 
moisture fromnot only thesurface which they cover, but from even the 
surface of the streams themselves, as well as from the areas under 
actual cultivation. Every pound of water restored by the trees to 



24 

the atmospliere is a check upon that dry condition which results in 
parched earth, and the general dry condition which we have so ex- 
pressively denominated "drought." 

JBut even here the end of the forest usefulness has not been 
reached. Coming from above downward, the heat from the sun pen- 
etrates our atmosphere readily, and during the day accumulates in 
the earth more rapidly than it escapes. This constitutes a safeguard 
which the farmer seldom has fully appreciated. Allow this heat to 
escape and the surface of the earth to become reduced to, or even 
near to the temperature of surrounding space, and it would mean de- 
Istruction of most of our crops. It is the heat of the sun which ia 
stored in our earth that prevents this reduction in temperature, and 
it is the moisture in the air which holds this life-preserving heat tor 
our benefit. In this respect the value of the forests as producers of 
watery vapor is simply incalculable. 

The network of roots descending from tree, shrub or herb, renders 
the earth more porous, and to a certain extent produces a sieve-like 
condition, by means of which the water percolates to the depths 
below. 

We have not yet alluded to the mere mechanical action of the dead 
leaves in retaining moisture as they strew the forest tloor. A very 
simple experiment will make all this quite plain. Take a baskeL of 
leaves in the autumn, just as they have fallen from the trees, weigh 
them and note the weight. Now place that same basket, with the 
same contents, out where tlie snow of winter may fall upon it and 
melt, as the spring advances. Then weigh it. You will be surprised 
at the increase of weight. Yet it is caused solely by the water which 
the leaves have retained. Now, instead of limiting this experiment 
to a surface of a foot or two, imagine the effect of such a collection of 
leaves extending over miles of forest floor, and the vast importance 
of even the dead leaves appears. Every pound of that water, too, is 
acting as a protection against the dry condition of the atmosphere 
which prevails during a drought. The leaves, however, have not only 
been gathering moisture themselves, but they have first aided in the 
safe storing of the surplus water beneath the earth's surface, and 
then they have been the most efficient agent in preventing the loss 
of that water by a rapid and premature evaporation. Furthermore, 
as these same leaves decayed they have furnished carbon dioxide gas 
to the water, as it trickled down into the earth, and to a very 
marked degree aided thus in the dissolving of certain kinds of racks 
into the condition of soil. 

This vista of the usefulness of the forest to the farmer is endless. 
It is endless simply because the order of things existing in nature 
is the result of forces operating through almost endless years, until 
each has become adapted to the other. The touch of the human 



25 

hand when it removes the forest covering, to a certain extent, disar- 
ranges this established oi'der. It is unavoidable, nay, it is necessary 
for human well-being that this should be disarranged; but to effect 
the change in a hasty, destructive manner, without regard to the 
operation of any natural law, is but to invoke here the disaster 
which has already overtaken other nations. On page 261, of "Aspects 
of the Earth," Professor Shaler has in his usual clear style portrayed 
some of the consequences: "The most serious misfortune connected 
with the reckless destruction of the forest arises from the loss of the 
soil from large areas of land, by which regions naturally fertile have 
been converted into deserts of irredeemable sterility. Already a 
large part of many fertile regions has been sterilized in this fashion, 
and each year a larger portion of this infinitely precious heritage 
of life slips into the rivers and finds its way to the sea because we 
have deprived it of the protecting coating of vegetation." 

We may now briefly consider what the forests may and should do 
for us in the future. 

First of all, the forests should continue to do for us in the future 
all that they have done in the past — that is, in so far as their de- 
creased areas will allow that to be possible; but they should do 
more than this still. They should be made the active agent in restor- 
ation of fertility to acres that have already become so unproductive 
that they will no longer compensate the farmer for his labor upon 
them. 

Mankind, and especially we of this Western world, are still young 
in our relation to natural laws and but half awake to the impending 
results of violations of those laws. It is true that in some O'f the 
earlier seats of civilized power, deserts have taken the place of fer- 
tile fields, and that want exists in the very regions which once were 
the granaries of great nations. The connection between cause and 
effect is plain enough when attention is called to it. It is hard, how- 
ever, to induce the individual to make a personal application of even 
the plainest lessons. We have not yet reached the point as a people 
of recognizing that we are responsible for the prosperity of those 
whom we have begotten, or that at least we have no moral right to 
leave the world in a worse condition for the support of our children 
than we found it for ourselves. We have, in full justice, but the 
usufruct of the lands to which we hold the titles. 

This all applies, with full force, to the manner to which we impov- 
erish our hill lands by slovenly farming and then abandon them to 
the descending rains and melting snows, until they have passed first 
into an unproductive condition and then into that of a desert. 

If there is any one statement which, among the farmers is more 
common than another, it is that "farming don't pay." Of course 
upon even that point opinions may differ, and much may depend 



26 

upon how the farming is done. It is quite clear that farming cannot 
continue to pay upon land which is constantly becoming poorer. 
There must, under such circumstances, come a time when it will 
cease to be remunerative and then perforce must be abandoned. It 
is absolutely true that at this very hour a very considerable por- 
tion of our State has already reached this deplorable condition. In 
the nature of the case we cannot say just what the proportion is, but 
it would probably be safe to say that at least one-tenth of oup 
cleared area has ceased to be remunerative under any ordinary 
system of agriculture. Furthermore, almost every acre of this land 
is becoming worse. This condition has become a pressing practical 
problem, which rises beyond the domain of politics, and into that 
of statesmanship. Whatever else may be doubtful, it is absolutely 
certain that no state can continue to be prosperous if its population is 
increasing and its resources decreasing. The only promise such a 
condition makes for the future, is want, increased severity in the 
sti-nggle foi- food, and political unrest. The only elfeelive measures 
of relief must be based upon a restoration of those unproductive 
acres to a productive condition. We are limited, too, in the direc- 
tion that these measures take, for they must involve a minimum of 
expense with a maximum of good results. 

Thus far we know of but one method by which this can be done, 
it is to restore all such land to a timbered conditiim. This proposi- 
tion is radical, possibly ahead of the times, but it is true neverthe- 
less, and in the exjx'i'icnce of nieu will apjx'iir more and more true 
each succeeding year. It is therefore the height of folly to ignore it. 

The one practical question is, how can a change be brought about? 
This involves \\\o ideas. First, What can (he individual farmer 
do? Second, What should the State do? In what follows it is to 
be understood that we now speak solely of land which has been 
farmed and become impoverished, or wljicli has for years at least, 
been considered ])art of a farm holding, even (hough it 'has never 
been cleared. We do not refer at present to those larger areas from 
which the lumber has been removed and which have been aban- 
doned, without care, to the yearly forest tii'c. Such lands demand 
a se])arate consideration. 

First, what can the individual faiiner do? If he derives no 
revenue from any lands for his labor he can, at least, wisely suspend 
unpromising labor upon them and devote his time to something 
which promises remuneration. This is simple, ordinary sense, and 
any man may be supposed to be capable of appreciating the argu- 
ment. He could also, at nominal cost, encourage the growth of 
forest trees upon them. There are thousands of acres in this Com- 
monwealth which miire once fields, but which are now covered with 
a growth of young, thi'ifty yellow pine. There is 'hardly any land 



27 

so poor that wliite po|)lar would not thrive upoD it, aud in a brief 
pej'iod producing a remunerative crop of pulp wood. Even Ailantus, 
w hich will j^row almost anywhere, gives promise of coming value as 
a lumber for the cabinetmaker. The cost of these trees as a first 
growth is almost nothing. Meanwhile they would form shade and 
soil in whicli other, more desirable trees, would grow. Thie esisen- 
tial fact to bear in mind is that on land which yielded northing, and 
uas becoming poorer, fertility, under forest conditions, is increas- 
ing, a crop of some value is being raised, and almost no money or 
labor is expended. The gain, however small, is on the side of the 
farmer, or land owner. Furthermore, this gain promises, if the 
business is wisely conducted, to become greater each year, because 
of increasing scarcity of wood and increasing demand for it. It 
must be remembered that new uses are being discovered for wood 
faster than substitutes for it are found. But if such a plan is to 
succeed, fires and cattle must be kept off of the ground. Ultimately 
we shall, on just such land, come to plant chestnut, locust, various 
oaks and white pine. Indeed, once the first growth or protective 
cover is formed, .a day in autumn devoted to dropping acorns, 
chestnuts and locust seed, in shallow holes, and then giving them 
a slight covering of earth and leaves, would more than likely show 
results which would surprise the planter. These, however, are de- 
tails which canuot be considered in this connection. 

To meet just this condition of affairs the State has wisely enacted 
the following law: 

AN ACT 

For the encouragement of forest culture, and providing penalties 
for the injury and destruction of .forests. 

Section 1. Be it enacted, etc.. That in consideration of the public 
benefit to be derived from the planting and cultivation of forest or 
timber trees, the owner or owners of any land in this Common- 
wealth planted with forest or timber trees in number not less than 
twelve hundred to the acre, shall, on making due proof thereof, be 
entitled to receive annually from the commissioners of their respec- 
tive counties, during the period that the said trees are maintained 
in souud coudition upon the said land, the following sums of money: 

For a period of ten years after the land lias been so planted a 
sum equal to ninety per centum of all the taxes annually assessed 
and paid upon the said land, or so much of the ninet}' per centum 
as shall not exceed the sum of forty-five cents per acre. 

For a second period of ten years, a sum equal to eighty per 
centum of the said taxes, or so much of the eighty per centum as 
shall Dot exceed the sum of forty cents per acre. 

For a third and final period of ten years, a sum equal to fifty 



28 

per centum of the said taxes, or so mucla of the said fifty per 
centum as shall not exceed the sum of twenty-five cents per acre. 

Provided, That it shall be lawful for the owner or owners of the 
said land, after the same has been so planted for at least ten years, 
to thin out and reduce the number of trees growing thereon to not 
less than six hundred to the acre, so long as no portion of the siiid 
land shall be absolutely cleared of the said trees; 

And provided also. That the benefits of this act shall not be 
extended to nurserymen or others growing trees for sale for future 
planting. 

Section 2. The owner or owners of forest or timber land in this 
Commonwealth, which has been cleared of merchantable timber, 
who shall, within one year after the said land has been so cleared, 
have given notice to the commissioners of their respective counties 
that the said land is to be maintained in timber, and who shall 
maintain upon the said land young forest or timber trees in sound 
condition, in number at least twelve hundred to the acre, shall, on 
making due proof thereof be entitled to receive annually from the 
Gommissioners of their respective counties the sums of money men- 
tioned in the first section of this act: Provided, That ttie first 
period of ten years shall be counted from the time that the said 
land has been cleared of mercihantable timber, and, that after the 
said first period of ten years, the number of trees upon the said 
land may be reduced as in the first section is provided. 

Section 3. Any person or persons who shall wilfully or carelessly 
cut bark from, or otherwise cut, burn or injure any tree, plant, shrub 
or sprout planted, growing or being on any land in this Common- 
wealth, without the consent of the ownei' or owners thereof first 
had, obtained, or who without such consent, shall kindle, or cause 
to be kindled, a fire on any forest or timber land in this Common- 
wealth, or wlio shall carry into or over any forest or timber land 
any lighted candle, lamp or torch, or other fire, without having the 
same secured in a lantern or other closed vessel, or who shall dis- 
charge or set off fireworks of any kind on said land or among the 
trees tbereon, or who shall wilfully or carelessly burn or fire upon 
his or their own land, or that of others, any tree, brush, stubble or 
other combustible material whereby fire shall be communicated to 
the leaves, brush or timber upon any forest or timber lands belong- 
ing to other parties, shall be subject to a penalty not exceeding 
one hundred dollars for each offense committed, with costs of suit: 
l*rov1ded. That if the defendant or defendants neglect or refuse to 
])ay at once the penalty imposed and costs, or shall not enter suflfi- 
cient bail for the payment of the same within ten days, he or they 
shall be committed to the common jail of said county for a period 
of not less than one day for each dollar of the penalty imposed: 



29 

And provided, Wliei; the penalty imposed is above five dollars, the 
defendant or defendant.s may enter into a recognizance, with good 
security, to answer said complaint on a charge of misdemeanor, 
before the court of quarter sessions of the peace of the county in 
which the offense is committed, which court, on conviction of the 
defendant or defendants of the offense so charged and failure to pay 
the penalty imposed by this act. with costs, shall commit said de- 
fendant or defendants to the common jail of the county for a period 
of not less than one day for each dollar of penalty imposed. 

Section 4. Any justice of the peace or alderman, upon in- 
formation or complaint made before him by the aflBdavit of one or 
more persons of tlie violation of this act, by any person or persons 
shall issue his warrant to any constable or police officer to cause such 
person or persons to be arrested and brought before the said justice 
of the peace or alderman, who shall hear and determine the guilt 
or innocence of the person or persons so charged, who, if convicted 
of the said offense, shall be sentenced to pay the penalty afore- 
said. 

Section 5. The commissioners of each county shall, within one 
month after the passage of this act. cause the same to be published 
one or more times, in one newspaper of general circulation in their 
respective counties. 

Pamphlet Laws, 1887, p. 287. 

As this paper deals with the relations of the forest to the farmer, 
it would be out of place to introduce the wider bearings of State 
forest reservations. Tliere are, however, most important connections 
existing between the State, the farmers and the forests, and it is 
proper that they should be more fully understood. For example, 
one may assume that so long as a forest stands on a portion of a 
farm it is doing a public service, because of its relations to the at- 
mosphere and the rainfall. In fact it would usually be hard to 
show that the owner derived any more benefit from his standing 
timber than the citizens generally did. He, however, pays all the tax 
upon it. Indeed, during the financial stress ol recent years, the 
owners have frequently been obliged to- remove the trees in order 
to realize something from land upon which they were paying money 
out. This may seem incredible, but it can be proven. In otber 
words, in self protection, the farmer was driven to remove forest 
growth, which, under existing circumstances, was actually of more 
value to the Commonwealth than fihe taxes paid upon it were. Clear- 
ly there must be something wrong with legislation which drives a 
man to impovei*ish the State! It should also be remembered at the 
same time that forest property is the most open to damage by in- 
truders, and yet as a matter of fact, though taxes are paid upon it, 
the State practically accords it, now, no protection. The injustice of 



30 

this whole system of forest taxation (on farm laud) is so plainly 
recognized by the farmers that repeated attempts have been made 
to remove it from the list of taxable property. 

It is clear, however, that it would be unconstitutional to exempt 
it from taxation wholly. It is not named by the coustitutiou amon;:;^ 
the privileged classes of property, and therefore must for the present 
remain subject to tax. Ttiat there may be no doubt upon this point, 
we quote Article IX, Sec. I, of the State Constitution: 

"All taxes must be uniform, upon the same class of subjects, 
within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and 
shall be levied and collected under general laws; but the General 
Assembly may, by general laws, exempt from taxation public prop- 
erty used foa- public purposes, actual places of religious worship, 
places of burial not used or held for private or corporate profit, and 
institutions of a purely public charity. 

''Section 2, All laws exempting property from taxation, other thau 
the property above enumerated, shall be void." 

There is, however, a most hopeful alternative. That the power ex- 
ists to classify property for the purposes of taxation is clear from the 
wording of Article IX, Sec. 1, because the expression, "class of 
subjects," is used therein. That this power belongs to the General 
Assembly of the Commonwealth seems to be equally clear. See 
discussion of this subject by J. Carroll Hayes, attorney-at-law, Re- 
port of Department of Agriculture. 1895, Part II, p. 39, et seq. 

Such classification in real estate is already made, "as seated lands 
and unseated lands." Paxson, J,, in Wheeler vs. Philadelphia, 77 
Pa. 349, writes: "Thus, timber lands, arable lands, mineral lands, 
urban and rural, may be divided into distinct classes, and subject to 
different rates." 

It would appear to be possible to place farm timber lands in a dis- 
tinct class and then, without wholly exempting them from taxes, 
subject them to a minimum rate. It should further be urged that 
this measure of relief is of vastly more importance to the State than 
it is to the land owners. It is merely a question whether it is more 
economical for the Commonwealth to grow and maintain that due 
]>roporti()n of timber laud which science, observation and history have 
shown to be requisite for the continued prosperity of its citizens, or 
whether it cannot (in part at least.) be done to greater advantage by 
the land owners, if the State will make it possible for them to do so 
without pecuniary loss to themselves. 

The fourth and last point remaining for discussion may be briefly 
disposed of, i. e.: 

Can we afford to do without forests? It is a safe axiom of 
political economy that no State can afford to do without anything of 
value which it can produce almost without cost, on ground that is 



31 

capable of producing nothing else. It may furtliermo're be affiruu'd 
that the rule is no less applicable to the individual land owner than 
it is to the State. In other words, neither State nor individual can 
afford to allow resources to remain unutilized. This idea admits of 
a wide discussion; but we content ourselves with a mere statement 
of the principle. 

The farmers of Pennsylvania, in common with otlier classes of 
citizens, may now witness the passing of two great industries which 
still are, or but recently were, largely developed within our limits, 
i. e., lumbering and tanning. Whatever diminishes their importance 
here will increase the cost of our lumbering and tanning products. 
It is furthermore worthy of remark tliat the jtroducor can do, as 
he has done in the past, shift the scene of his operations and still 
conduct a ])rofitable business; but fhe consumer locateid here must 
pay the additional cost of transportation. These industries give 
steady, remunerative employment to thousands of men who demand 
our farm products and whose wages pay for them. 

In short the Pennsylvania farmer can no more afford to do without 
the forests which crown our high lands and mountain sides, and are 
a part of the fanii areas, than he can afford to do without timber, 
without soil renewal, or without a constant, even supply of pure 
water. 

If we remove, without restoring the forests on the otherwise un- 
productive lands of the Ooniimonwealth, we cannot expect to escape 
the evil effects which always follow when the long-established order 
of nature has been suddenlv violated. 



32 



EEMOVAL OF THE FERTILE SOIL FROM THE 
FARM BY WATER. 



In a brief paper elsewhere in this volume the writer has stated in 
general terms the relations between forests and the soil of farms. 
This article is intended to present some more detailed and practical 
suggestions upon the same subject. 

Just how valuable this soil is which is washed away from our 
cultivated acres will appear from the following statement made by a 
gentleman who was well-known in Pennsylvania and recognized ag 
one of our most wide-awake farmers. The late Colonel James Young, 
of Middletown, was asked at a meeting of the State Board of Agricul- 
ture, what fertilizer he derived the largest returns from. He re- 
plied promptly, that in the winter he kept men employed cleaning out 
the bottom of the canal, which ran through his land, and that he 
thought this paid him better than any form of fertilizer he could use. 
In short, he said, that it was about the most profitable industry on his 
farm. Colonel Young was simply gathering up the wash from his 
own land and from that of others, further up streaiu, and restoring 
it all to his own land. It was a far-sighted, legitimate enterprise, 
one which was an example of the application of common sense to 
farming. It also converted his productive farms into object lessons 
for the rest of the community. 

Just how great the volume of this fertile soil wash is very few 
persons have any idea of. Usually it goes on and attracts but little 
attention. Unless it in some way becomes conspicuous by its un- 
usual amount, or by becoming a nuisance in the form of mud or 
dust in our roads. 

. The illustration accompanying this article is one, however, out 
of many which might have been had this summer. The space in- 
cluded within the dark lines shows the location of such a wash, 
and to a certain extent its volume. The history of that pile of fer- 
tility (indicated by the lines aforesaid), is this: Last summer, it was 
observed that the corn field above the road, having an average slope 
of probably three degrees, was badly washed after each heavy 
shower. The loss of soil was very apparent. The field was in corn, 
and of course its surface was loose. Over the whole surface, obser- 
vation showed, there had been a general removal of material, which 



s» 



33 

was the best, because it was the most *soluble, and therefore best 
adapted to the uses of the growing crop. This soil had also, in each 
depression, been worn out more deeply because the water had there 
gathered into small rivulets or streams, and its erosive power was 
greater along such lines. Finally, this soluble soil found its way 
out of the field and into the edge of the road, where it lay duringmost 
of the summer in a condition alternating between mud and dust. K 
the soil which had been washed away from that acre of good land, 
in a single season, had been placed on one of the many impoverished 
acres of the Commonwealth, it is probable that there would have 
been enough of it to have produced a fair crop. As it was, instead 
of being a source of benefit to the land owner, it had become more 
or less of a nuisance to the traveling community. In the autumn 
this material was gathered up (wisely enough) to be replaced upon 
the field whence it came. It is worthy of no-te that in the woods ad- 
jacent (visible in the illustration,) there is almost no sign of wash. 
The rain appears to have been either wholly absorbed, or its tiow 
so held in check that it was incapable of doing any damage on wood- 
land having that same degree of slope. Its damage upon the same 
field, if it had been in sod, w^ould have been vastly less than it was 
on the plow-ed field, but it would, probably, have been considerably 
greater than in the woods. 

Another instance of the effect of wash it may be worth while to 
give here. In traveling through a very beautiful valley in the cen- 
tral part of Pennsylvania, it was O'bserved that portions had but 
recently been cleared of the trees. There were signs of abundant 
crops on the ground from which the stumps had not as yet 
wholly disappeared. On the other hand, where the land had been 
longer under cultivation the yield was scanty. The solution of this 
was easily reached when the wash from the field into the road was 
observed. 

The question is sometimes asked why a ridge top, or a portion of 
a hillside near the top, remains fertile so much longer than the 
ground just at the foot of the hill. Instances, or alleged instances, 
have recently come to my notice. The fact is not hard to understand, 
though the same explanation will not always answer on the same 
spot. Time is an element of the problem. For example, when the 
land is first cleared, that portion which is highest, whether it be the 
top of a hillside or a level table-land, can receive no considerable 
volume of water from any higher point. On the table-land an im- 
mense proportion of the rainfall goes into the ground. The de- 
composing rocks below the surface renew fertility as fast as it is 
washed out on the surface. The same is true of the top of the hill- 

•Not soluble in a chemical sense, teut capabl* of beln^r suspended In and cajr- 
rled by water. 



34 

side. Each foot, for example, carries but little more water than fell 
upon it. Neither rain nor melting snow have had time or chance to 
gather into a torrent with great eroding power. The land at the 
bottom maj be in one of two conditions. Before it was cleared a 
small quantity of fertile soil, humus resulting in great part from 
decomposing leaves, had gradually been carried down the slope 
above and been arrested at that point. Hence, as a rule, the foot of 
the hill in u wooded condition is more fertile than the higher por- 
tions. This is clearly shown by the product being larger and more 
vigorous. This condition of affairs continues after the clearing has 
been made for a varying period of time, the length of which will de- 
pend upon the conditions. Sooner or later, however, the land at the 
foot of the hill becomes at least as unproductive as that above. The 
reason of this is obvious. The water which flows from the top of the 
hill flows with an ever-increasing velocity as it descends. It has 
but little force when it starts, but gathers streugtii and erosivei 
power as it reaches the bottom. The result is inevitable. Not only 
is the soil which was accumulating while the wood remained on the 
ground removed, but beside this, the original natural surface goes 
with it. Surface impoverisbment goes on more rapidly than soil 
formation does below, hence results a greater sterility on the lower 
grounds than those of the plateau, or of the hill top. Or to state 
the same idea as is more generally done, the top of the hill has be- 
come riclier than the foot and the lower part of the side. 

The present condition of a very large portion of the steeper re- 
gions of (lie State is already in a deplorable condition. The north- 
ern tier of counties is within the belt once covered by glaciers. Or 
perhaps it would be better to state that the signs of glacial action 
are most marked there. Such regions, as Prof. Shaler has well re- 
marked, do not sntfer severely from washing out of the elements 
of fertility, because "owing to the depth and loose aggregation" of 
the materials deposited by tlie ice masses, a larg(^ ])art of the water" 
soaks into the ground. It is. therefore, quite as likely to increase 
the quantity of material lit for plant food as it is to remove it. 
When, however, we study the counties which make up the southern 
half of the Commonwealth, a different condition of affairs is at once 
visible. The traces of glacial action are less plain and signs of soil 
impoverishment are correspondingly more common. Even in such 
counties as t.-liester and Yor]<, which, on the whole, possess a vast 
agricultural wealth, there is probably a larger acreage of land so 
impoverished, that it cannot be counted upon for a crop, than there 
is in Susquehanna county. The unpleasant truth had better be 
stated that Pennsylvania possesses a vast acreage now under a nom- 
inal system of agriculture, which is falling lower each year in the 
scale of productiveness, wliich gives no promise of future agricul- 



35 

tural value, and which should, with the least possible delay, be re- 
stored to a forest condition. The steep, shaly ridges within our limits 
which have but little natural productiveness, which impose upon 
the unfo'rtunate who attempts to farm them an extra labor and cost 
to maintain them in a remunerative condition, and even then very 
frequently fail to answer to even moderate expectations, are ex- 
amples. 

It may be well here to quote a general statement from the "Eco- 
nomic Aspects of Soil Erosion," by Professor N. S. Shaler, whose ob- 
servatio'ns upon this point have been careful, long-continued, and 
have extended over wide areas. "Owing to the fact that in North 
America generally the rainfall is apt to have a torrential character 
(the precipitation taking place at a rate which is not common in 
Europe) and to the fact that these downpours are likely to occur on 
ground which has been loosened by the frost, our soils are exposed 
to a measure of danger much greater than that which menaces the 
fields of the Old ^A orld. There appears to be but one way by which 
we may meet this danger — this is by limiting the work of the plow to 
those fields which have a degree of slope so slight that with proper 
tillage they may not be exposed to scouring action. Although this 
classification has to be made for each district and species of soil, it 
may in general be said that no field which has a greater slope than 
five feet vertical in one hundred feet of length should in any country 
1)0 exposed to the danger which ordinary cropping inflicts. Areas 
from this measure of inclination upward to thrice this rate of slope, 
or to a maximum of fifteen feet in the hundred, may reasonably be 
plowed in order to bring them into the state of grass lands, but 
should not be tilled more than is necessary to retain them in this 
state. All areas having a slope of more than fifteen feet in one hun- 
dred should by the rules which the conserv;i(or of the soils is dis- 
pi>sed to lay down, be devoted to forests whicli afford the only crop 
that can be harvested from such ground without a swift and imme- 
diate loss of fertility." 

There remains for consideration the other aspect of this prO'blem; 
i. e., the effects of the wash upon the land where it may be arrested. 
If this soil so deposited is fertile the land receiving it is a gainer. 
If, on the other hand, as often happens, sand, stone and pebbles are 
deposited upon the lower land, the effect is most destructive. This 
latter condition seldom occurs except where deep gulches have been 
worn out of the hillside above, and where the water flow has as- 
sumed the character of a torrent. In this country land lost to culti- 
vation by the overflow of sand and rocks is not large in area. Cer- 
tainly not, at least as compared with certain districts in Europe. 
For example, we are reliably informed that the "French government 
and tliie farmers together have spent during the last thirty 



36 

years over |40,000,000, and expect to spend three or four times that 
amount to reforest 1,000,000 acres of denuded mountain sides, the 
soil and debris from which have been carried by the torrents of water 
into the plain covering over 8,000,000 acres of fertile ground and 
making it useless for agriculture." Still it is important enough here 
to merit our consideration. • 

How may the damage already done be repaired? This resolves 
itself mainly into filling up the gulches worn into the hillsides and 
bringing the areas overflowed by the deluge of debris into a fit con- 
dition of farming purposes. The latter part is simply to remove 
surface stones and add fertility enough to secure a crop. This, how- 
ever, is subsequent to filling up the gulches, as if done before the 
wash was arrested, it would simply be labor lost. The important 
part of the problem then is to arrest the water flow in the gulches. 
Attack an enemy in his weakest point. In the case of water flow it 
is where it begins. In hilly regions, where such washes are most 
frequent and most damaging, there is usually an abundance of stones 
which may with advantage to tlie farm, be gathered and dumped into 
the upper end of the gully, thus lowering the point at which the 
wash begins, and to that extent lessening the destructive force of 
the flowing water. Every foot thus gained at the upper end renders 
the task easier. 

There are. however, extensive gulches in which such direct, unaided 
repair would be an immense task. We must make the tO'rrent itself 
expend its power in repairing the damages it has caused. In France 
and Germany this has developed almost into a science. The thing 
aimed at is: First, to check the velocity of the descending water, and 
second, to arrest permanently the soil which the water carries down- 
vvard with it. All such soil (or stone) is thus deposited where it will 
do the best service. To accomplish these desirable objects the cO'Urse 
of the ravine is partly filled at various points with brush, which is 
held in place, that it be not washed out, by weights such as stones, 
logs placed transversely to the course of the gulch and firmly fixed 
in position. It requires no explanation tO' understand how so simple 
a device as this may both retard the speed of the water and encourage 
deposition of the earthy matters which it carries. Furthermore, the 
water will flow in all ordinary times through the interstices. The 
undermining process in the sides of the deepest part of the gully are 
largely arrested. This allows chance to further bind the bank by a 
growth O'f willows or such species of shrubbery or trees as will grow 
most promptly in the location. When willow brush can be obtained 
in a living condition and so placed as to be in contact with a moiat 
soil, they may be expected to grow, and as they ascend out of the 
depths of the ravine, to not only hold soil but to constantly rise above 
it. bv growth. 



37 

On most farms there are found a j^reater or less quantity of old 
fails. These placed lengthwise in the ravines, and held in place by 
«tones thrown over them, often answer a good purpose. 

How to prevent soil washing. This is of infinitely more importance 
than how to repair damages. It is more than doubtful whether as a 
people we are in a proper frame of mind to profit by the experience 
of other nations. It is unfortunately true that we shall probably 
go through the most costly process of gathering our own knowledge. 

There are several principles involved in presentation of soil wash- 
ing. It would at first appear impossible that tihie hardest, most 
compact soils are those in which destructive, deep washing occurs. 
This, however, becomes clear when one remembers that on such sur- 
faces the water flows on top, with but little to arrest its speed, and 
consequently with little to diminish its destructive power. On the 
other hand, if the soil be loose and porous, and especially if it con- 
tains much vegetable matter, it has a large capacity for absorbing 
water, which slowly percolates away beneath the surface. The un- 
derlying principle here, then, is to secure a porous soil, and all the 
better if that porosity is gained by the roots ol living plants, which 
produce also a strong cohesion in the mass of earth. 

When ground much given to washing is plowed for the purpose of 
cropping, straw is often placed in the furrows, to be covered at the 
next round of the plow. This is a simple, time-honored method of 
singular efficiency. 

Underdraining by the removal of surplus water increases the 
cajacity, in times of heavy rainfall, of the soil for absorbing and 
holding water. This again diminishes, or often almost wholly pre- 
vents, destructive surface wash. It is well known that soils which 
are well limed are less apt to wash than those which are not. 

There are times when these methods of preventing soil washinoj 
are, alone, wholly ineffectual and must be abandoned or used in con- 
nection with other methods. Among which are: 

(a) Furrows oi' barriers which run over the field, as nearly as pos- 
sible, horizontally. Tliis slackens the speed of the water, diminishing 
its erosive power on the one hand and allowing increased chance of 
absorption (of the water) on the other hand. 

(b) The formation of terraces, whose sloping surfaces (at least) 
may be in a dense sod, and whose flat parts may be cultivated or not, 
as happens. 

(c) Planting belts of trees in the horizontal direction along a hill- 
side. This allows a chance for the formation of an absorbing layer 
of liumns and of leaves, which wOl aid the roots in changing the sur- 
face flow to one of undergroiund character. 

(d) Most important of all — giving up to growth of trees all such 
soil as is likely to wash or to involve considerable expense in pre- 

.3* 



38 

venting it. The successful applicatiO'n of this principle sometimes 
involves considerable skill and thought. The land to be forested 
may be in the condition least suited for such work. It may be poor, 
dry and sun-scorched. It may even be that no tree of value could at 
first be induced to grow on it. We may even be glad to secure a 
luxuriant growth of weeds as the first product at such a place. Nev- 
ertheless, all such places can be reforested, if one is careful first in 
the selection of his seed, and second in doing every step of his work 
thoroughly. 

How shall we proceed? First of all, select an area no larger than 
you can properly prepare and care for. It is quite possible that if 
the seeds to be sowed were placed on the ground when the frost is 
coming out, that the nlfcrnale freezing and thawing of the surface 
would bring them into close contact with the soil, as is the case with 
clover seed, and that many of them would grow. This method, how- 
ever, is but an apology for what should be done. The ground should 
be broken up, if possible. If it cannot be done with the ordinary plow 
then it should be done with t!he primitive shovel plow. A good subse- 
quent harrowing will tend to even up the surface and to further re- 
duce the clods. Bear in mind what we are now seeking is the first 
tree covering, something which will afford protection to such trees 
as we dosire ulfinialely (o j)]:int for their useful ])roperties. \V« 
must, therefore, be willing to sow what will grow. Locust is 
always a valuable timber. It flourishes on almost any kind of soil 
and is much less apt to be bothered by the borer when planted in 
clumps or in quantity, than when it stands as an isolated tree, or row 
of trees, by the roadside. The ill-odored Ailantus, while in small de- 
mand now, promises in the future to have a value as furnishing wood 
for the cabinet maker. It has the supreme merit of thriving under 
neglect and of growing on almost any soil. The Catalpa tree (either 
the Kaslcrn or I he ^\'esl{Mll form) grows \ igorously on a certain class 
of soils. It is, however, not adapted to every location. If the soil is 
fertile ;ni(i moist tlicic is but little doubt of its success. If, on the 
other hand, it is sowed in a clay soil over a limestone rock, the 
chances are not in its favor. Still it is so easily obtained that it may 
be well to include it in the present list. The wood is valuable for 
fence posts. 

These seeds may all be planted in early spring — the locust after 
having received a good preliminary soaking in hot water to soften the 
ontei- shell, and the Ailantus and the Catalpa after having been 
dampened over night to waken them up. The introduced white pop- 
lar has the habit of growing on almost any soil. Moreover, when 
once started, its tendency to- self multi])lication is wonderful. This 
tree produces its seed in early spring, and even if not in time to plant 
with the seed, already indicated, would have a fair chance of success 



39 

in at least a moderate degree if sown broadcast on the ground subse- 
quently. Its seeds are light, and provided with a silky down which 
enables the wind to carry them ito great distances. It is suggested 
that mixing these over night with damp sand and sowing the whole 
(sand and seeds) together broadcast, would obviate the danger of the 
seeds being carried off the gro'und by wind. 

How shall they be sowed? That depends. First of all, in large 
quantity. Your immediate object is to secure shade and leaf litter 
and a penetration of the earth by the roots. These conditions having 
been acquired, the rest is easy. If sowed broadcast, as would be de- 
sirable on the soil we are now considering, a subsequent harrowing 
would cover the seed and increase its chances. 

Such a plantation, once started, would require thinning out very 
soon, else it would develop into the thicket condition, which so far as 
prevention of surface wash was concerned, wonld be effectual enough, 
but it would not give the best promise of a crop of valuable timber. 
It should not be necessary to suggest that browsing animals should 
not be allowed access to such grounds. Their presence would be fatal 
to any successful forestry operations. Fire of course would be disas- 
trous. The method just described is simply a slight improvement of 
the natural plan by which we so often see old, abandoned fields 
covered with a fresh forest growth. It has, however, this advantage 
that the growth is more likely to be prompt, dense and desirable. It 
is to be understood that the chief use of such a forest is to serve 
as a protection to more desirable trees, which may be introduced by 
methods already well understood. 

There is another class of land, which, though no longer remunera- 
tive under ordinary agriculture, is still better than that we have just 
described, and which it may be desirable to cover as speedily as 
possible with a forest growth. The preparation of the soil here may 
be more thorough. And while the same broadcast methods of sowing 
may still be resorted to, it is by no means certain that they Should be. 
Having some choice in the matter, it may be wise to secure a more 
orderly arrangement of the trees, not ooly because greater protec- 
tion against wash is thus obtained, but because a better quality and 
a larger quantity of timber is secured. Indeed, it may be a question 
for the landowner to decide whether he will sow the whole surface 
by seed, or whether he will raise his seedlings in a nursery and then 
transplant them in the soil he desires to reforest. Such soil also 
admits of a larger list of seed which may be sown with fair promise 
of success: Elm, two or three species of ash and red maple may be 
added to the list already named for covering the ground speedily. 
And as the season's growth is more likely to be vigorous, the sowing 
may be longer delayed, or done, indeed, when the seeds ripen — from 
June to October. It may be suggested that in company with these 



40 

seeds there can also be a light sowing of such leguminous plants as 
will not only give protection to the tender trees, but will at the same 
time rapidly add nitrogen to the soil; i. e., field peas, and, certainly 
for the southern half of Pennsylvania, crimson clover. It should be 
stated that the locust tree is a nitrogen gatherer, and therefore adds 
to the fertility of the soil. 

The other alternative to sowing is by placing the seeds in rows. 
This is probably on the whole better adapted to the weightier seeds — 
the nuts and acorns for example. 

The methods to be employed for each kind of seed have been fully 
discussed in the report of this department for 1895. It will, there- 
fore, be unnecessary to repeat them here. 

If trees are raised in a nursery and transplanted the task is muoh 
If^ss formidable than supposed. Three men, or two men and a boy, 
can plant by means of a "dibble" from three to four thousand such 
young trees in a day. The same instrument may be used in planting 
cuttings, or such seeds as require a considerable cO'vering of earth. 

To recapilulate. the two sovereign remedies against "wash" on a 
farm are. first, a dense, well-matted sward, which should be kept in 
good condilion by frequent top dressing, or if this fails, a prompt 
restoration of land rendered nnjirodnctive tO' a forest condition. 





WALNUT TREE 
rroducing Fruit Externally Resembling the Hickory Nnt. 



41 



A WALNUT FEEAK. 



In the winter of 1895, my attention was called by Mr, William H. 
Groninger, clerk to the commissioners of Juniata county, to a re- 
markable fruit produced by a walnut tree near Pleasant View post- 
office, in the connty above named. The statement made in connection, 
with the tree was that it was a walnut tree which produced hickory 
nuts. 

Mr. Groninger handed me the fruit for inspection. Naturally 
enough I was cautious about expressing an opinion concerning so 
remarkable a production as the one held in my hand. It was appar- 
ently a black walnut, which retained its outer hull, or husk, in a 
wrinkled or weathered condition. I noticed that its free or upper 
end showed signs of splitting into valves, after the manner of the 
ordinary hickory nut. The other end, on which the point of attach- 
ment to the branch was still visible, had the texture, color and odor 
of the walnut, and of that only. The nut itself was unmistakably .t 
walnut. 

On April 16th, 189G, Mr. M. S. Esh was kind enough to take me to 
see the tree. It stands within a few minutes' walk of the railrond 
station known as Warble, on top of a low ridge, or hill, and within 
half a mile of the mountains on the southern side of the Tuscarora 
valley. The tree was about forty feet high. The trunk was two feet 
seven inches in diameter at four feet from the ground. The illustra- 
tion will show that it had in earlier days received severe injury. On 
the one side, toward the west, was a scar much more than a foot 
wide above, tapering down several feet to a point. It seemed as 
thougli one of the largest limbs had been torn off there by a storm. 
On the side toward the south, apparently an earlier and more ex- 
tensive injury had overtaken the tree. The illustration will show 
(hat it extends in one limb from above where the primary branches 
arise to the ground, and that it involves the entire heart of the 
trunk. The general belief is in the neighborhood that it is the result 
of a stroke of lightning. This I am not inclined to doubt. The tree 
is old and seems to grow but little. The statement of Mr. W. D. 
Bcale, a middle-aged man, who grew up (I am informed) on the farm, 
was that the tree seemed to have changed but little in appearance or 
size as long as he can remember it. At the time of my visit (April, 



42 

1895) the ground was abundautly strewn with the weathered fruit 
of the previous season. This fruit was probably half of the usual 
normal character, and presented no apparent difference from the 
ordinary black walnut, either in its outer husk, or in the nut and 
kernel. The other half of the fruit which lay on the ground presented 
in a more or less marked degree on its outer husk the split character 
of the hickory nut. The valves sometimes were barely indicated at 
the tip. At others they were clearly marked to the middle of the fruit 
or even lower still, but never quite to the base. The nut itself in 
every instance was a genuine walnut. 

On leaving this freak my first thought was that it must be a hybrid. 
This, however, cannot be the case, because the tree bears fruit of 
no constant character. Part is normal and the remainder is of the 
character indicated. There remains now to be stated that, which to 
my mind, is the most singular fact of all in connection with the his- 
tory of the tree; i. e., its fruit not only varies on the tree in the 
same year, but one year's ])roduet nppoais 1o be no certain sign of 
the character of the fruit on the following year. For example, the 
fruit of 1895 was, as has been stated, about evenly divided between 
the normal character and the sport. The fruit of the season of 1896 
was almost, if not quite, wholly normal. At least I failed to find any 
pronounced instances of the sport in the fruit when I visited the tree 
in October of this year. There was at the time an abundant crop of 
fruit lying on the ground, and the only indication I was able to ob- 
serve of any departure from the normal state were two fruits which 
bore faint longitudinal ridges toward their apex. 

So far as I am aware, no demonstrable solution of this singular 
biological problem is to be had. Still there are certain facts which 
point to a possible explanation. 

It is clear that a tree so maimed as this one cannot be regarded 
as in a healthy condition. Leaving out of sight the fact that it is 
practically a mere shell, there remains also the still more important 
fact that one-half of that shell is destroyed, and that if thelimbsabove 
receive full nourishment it must be through a much diminished sur- 
face of cambium and young wood. That nutrition is seriously im- 
paired niiglit probably be inferred from the remark of Mr. Beale, that 
he has known the tree all his life, and that it has changed but little, if 
any, during that time. Its growth is, therefore, exceedingly slow. 
There is another fact to be considered as pointing toward though not 
proving the explanation about to be offered; i. e., the season of 1895 
was one of phenomenal drought, and the abnormal fruit formed about 
fifty per cent, of the yield of that season. The summer of 1896 was 
more favorable, and there was but little shortage in the rainfall. 
During this season the fruit was practically wholly normal. May it 
not be a case of arrested development due to impaired nutrition? 




TRUNK OF W4LNUT TREE 
Which Produces Fruit Externally Keseinbling the Hickory Nut. 




X 




% 






^4v 



WAL-NUr HUSK. 
Dividing like that of the Hickory Nut. 



43 

If this is true, it would probably also lead to tbe conclusion that the 
typical black walnut (Juglans nigra) is biologically higher than any 
of the species of hickory (Carya) and that the former may be consid- 
ered as a development from the latter. 

An effort was made to ascertain when the tree was injured and 
whether any connection could be traced between the injury and the 
appearance of the abnormal fruit. No information of positive char- 
acter upon that point seems to be obtainable. 

The leaves do not seem to differ in any essential from those or- 
dinarily found on the walnut tree. 



44 



PARTIAL ABSTRACT STATEMENT OF TIMBER CUT 
DURING THE YEAR 1896 IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



To Hon. Thos. J. Edge, Secretary of Agriculture: 

Dear t>ir: It is by law made tlie duty of the Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, "as far as practicable, to procure statistics of the amount of 
timber cut during each year, the puri)Oses for which it is used and th(^ 
amount of land thus cleared as compared with the amount of land 
newly brought under limber cultivation." 

I have, under your direction, instituted sucli inquiries as were pos- 
sible, to comply with the above requirement. 

About fourteen hundred circulars were sent out to the lumbermen 
of the Slate. Keplies have been received from about half of them. 
It is unfortunate that some of the largest operators are conspicuous 
by absence of statistics from this report. We can only say that 
these figures represent in brief the informatioai which we have re- 
ceived up to December 1st, 181)0. and that a very large proportion of 
the timber cut remains unreported to us. This is the more worthy i)f 
regret, because it prevents such a showing to the public as would 
without injury to anyone, probably hasten legal relief and protection 
in which the lumbermen themselves have the largest financial in- 
terest. 

The brief period elapsing between the close of the year and the 
appearance of your report makes it impossible to secure all the in- 
formal ion desired. 1 1 is I lierefore suggested I hat our reports hei-e 
after be considered as extending from June 1st of one year to the 
same date of the following year. 

It is pi-ojuM llial I should add. 1 am indebted lo Mr. Robert S. 
Ccnklin, clerk of the Forestry Division, for collection and prepara- 
tion of the statistil-s used in the following table. It has been no 
slight task, and liis zeal and fidelity are worthy of commendation. 

There slill remains a large body of information in our hands u])i)n 
this subject which wO'Uld be well worth publishing later in some pop- 
ular form. 

It is with regret that we announce there is as yet, so far as we are 
informed, no determined, practical, intelligent eifort at timber 
restoration on a lacge scale in this State, except by the directors of 
the Philadelphia Trusts, who liave instituted a measure of rational 



45 

forestry on the lands in their care located in Schuylkill and Centre 
counties. 

There are some other examples of careful forest protection, in the 
face of great danger, from forest fires. As a conspicuoais instance we 
may point to the land owned and managed by General Paul Oliver, 
in Luzerne county. 

It is in vain to expect any extensive tree planting or true forestry 
until the vState will offer the owner some real protection against 
forest fires, or, in other words, until it is made by law as heinous an 
offense to fire a forest as it is to fire a barn. 

I am, sir, with great respect, 

J. T. ROTHROCK, 
Commissioner of Forestrv. 



46 



PARTIAL, SUMMARY OF TIMBER CUT, BY COUNTIES. 



County. 



Kinds of 


Timber 


Cut. 


m 


Feet, 


Board 


Measure 












1 














































i£ 






» 
























L, 


V 




S 






fS 














PU 




tc 


! 




o 



Alleghtny 

Armstrong 

Beaver, 

Bedford 

Berks 

Blair 

Bradford 

Bucks, 

Butler 

Cambria 

Cameron, 

Carbon 

Centre. 

Chester, 

Clarion 

Clearfield 

Clinton 

Columbia 

Crawford. 

Cumberland, . . . 

Dauphin 

Delaware 

Elk 

Erie 

Fayette, 

Forest, 

Franklin 

Fulton 

Greene 

Huntingdon, ... 

Indiana 

Jefferson , 

Juniata 

Lackawanna, . . 

Lancaster 

LawFince. , 

Lebanon 

Lehigh, 

Luieme 

Lycoming 

McKean 

Mercer 

Mifflin 

Montgomery 

Munriie, 

Montour 

Northampton, ... 
Northumberland, 

Perry 

Pike 

Potter 

Schuylkill 

Snyder 

Som.erset 

Sullivan 

Susquehanna, . . 

Tlo&a 

Union. 

Venango 

Warren, 

Washington 

Wayne 

Westmoreland, . . 

Wyoming, 

York 



606 
525 
1S» 
684 
2:!1 

1,480 

1,470 
219 
280 

3,925 

2,5r.8 
65 

5.093 
104 

1.639 
14,786 

2,734 
350 
B19 
196 
270 



244,000 


650,000 


176,200 


12.000 


80,000 
720,000 


62r>.000 
7,027,000 




100,000 

150.000 

80.000 

11,736.000 


16.345,000 

27,317,844 

33.-1,000 

3,210.000 



11,035.000 

10,074,000 

6,978,000 

885. 2S7 

10,000 

60,000 

260.000 



3, ,'04,000 
94 0S0,f00 

6,28,-), 000 
170,000 

2,336.000 



24,768 

285 

2,518 

10,092 

867 

660 

13 

1,056 

1,042 

5,105 

6S0 

466 

2 

242 

200 

102 

840 

8,186 

6,240 

316 

1,765 

90 

soo 

lOO 

70 

81 

1,747 

11,110 

6,:!04 

370 
2,147 
4,249 
3,120 

675 
3,857 
1,060 

360 
3,100 

110 



2,836,000 



310,560,842 
1.510,000 



12,668,270 
162,000 
440,000 



119,491,694 



525.000 

5.206,822 

17,822,000 

200,000 

«),000 



10.794,000 

68,425.000 

400,000 

730,000 





1,000,000 


1,800,000 


800,000 
3,006,000 


498,000 
24,880,000 
40,200,000 






395,000 


300,000 


1,000,000 


50 000 





11,200 
440.000 

760,000 

1.225.000 
670,000 

5,970,000 
914,500 
384,000 
100,000 
505.000 

2,925.000 
300,000 

8,820.000 



200,000 

120,000 

66,riO!) 

220. so:., 000 

1,300,000 

12,000 

2,550,000 

45,3S1,.tO0 

4,365.000 

26,621.000 

230,000 

1,100.000 

18.039.000 



883,000 

1,740,000 

140.000 

1,102,300 

831,000 

l,325,0u0 

1,765,000 

1,49.-), 000 

1,02 1.000 

2,070,000 

100,000 

340,000 

3,394,000 

1,124.000 

1,928 000 

8.166.000 

4.466,000 

391.000 

4,289,000 

900,000 

3,468,000 

33,000 

4,290,000 

1,302,000 

14,040 000 

3,453 714 

1,880,000 

110.000 

.=•.2,000 

901,000 

7,056,724 

3,466.030 

675,000 

660,000 

120,000 

2,134,000 

100,000 

935.000 

817,000 

2,099,000 

7, 470, 000 

3,164,511 

1,750,000 

750.000 

1180,000 

150,000 

1.50.000 

215,100 

l,9»-.,000 

1.414,000 

4,485.000 

630.000 

978,000 

15,620.000 

3,866.000 

745,000 

l.UO.OOO 

1.402,000 

1,060.000 

7.970,000 

1,124,000 



647 



330 
312 
14 
2,618 
165 



6.1.50 

15.760 

75 

8.675 

200 

»12 

34.513 

5,823 

480 

*So 

250 

213 



168.402 
264 
325 

66.296 
72.-. 



2t4 

8.5:;o 

26,<90 

330 

270 



40 

245 

4<2 

14,361 

23,7I,S 



1.190 



100 

60 

100 

120 

957 

130 

36,649 

385 

3.083 

S.S48 

19.269 

1,9S0 

17,831 

S<5 

455 

6,647 



Totals, 



686 
2,387 

S49 
155 


260.000 


985,000 
200,000 

3.708,500 


4 2^*0.000 

2,513.000 

2,900,000 

920,000 


<»6 

too 

8.149 

no 


1,030.000 
20,000 






140.150 t 


113,921,279 


1,062.762,380 


153.742.349 


. 486, 889 



47 



CHESTNUT POSSIBILITIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



In the year 1803 Mallilius published a work which inculcated tlie 
idea that it was necessary a considerable portion of mankind should 
die prematurely in order to keep the human population within the 
limits which the earth could sustain. It may be true that in the 
distant future such a doleful condition will be regarded as the nat- 
ural and necessary one, but it is in the very distant future. The fact 
is, we are barely on the edge of our agricultural possibilities. By far 
the largest yields of the earth in the way of food supply await in- 
creasing knowledge and necessity. 

To illustrate — it is fair to estimate that there are upon this globe 
not far from one hundred and fifty thousand species of flowering 
plants. On the one hand, the human family uses for food out of 
this vast host not over four hundred kinds. On the other hand, we 
know that but a small proportion of the remainder contains any poi- 
sonous or noxious properties. 

It is fortunate that upon so important a question we are not left 
to conjecture. There are positive facts we can draw upon to sup- 
port the statement that we are only on the edge of our possible food 
resources. For example, the island of Jamaica is probably no excep- 
tion to the majority of tropical islands in its fertility. It would, if 
reduced to a square, be only about seventy miles each way. Yet, 
after feeding its own population, it sends into the markets of the 
world about nine million dollars' worth of fruit annually. A speedy 
and regular ocean service has made this fruit so common and so cheap 
in this country that we are fast coming to regard it as food rather 
than as a luxury. Now, with all the capacity for food production 
in that island, we must remember that of all the food products 
which Jamaica to-day exports, the great bulk comes from plants 
which are not native to the island, but are introduced there. Its 
native flora furnished the greater part of the means of support to 
the large aboriginal population prior to the period of discovery, but 
is almost wholly unutilized now. I might say it is forgotten. It 
awaits rediscovery. 

Again, it is a fact which history will confirm that civilized man, 
so far as he has derived his food from the land, has done so almost 
entirely from the more fertile areas — at least deserts, with rare ex- 
ception, do not, or have not, supported a dense population. It must, 
however, be remembered that there are plants with wholesome, 
abundant farinaceous seeds which are especially adapted to thrive on 



48 

just such abandoned areas. The family of plants to which the weed 
known as ''lamb's quarters" belongs is of this character and some 
of the seed products have been utilized by the Indians from "time 
out of mind." We have, furthermore, every reason to think that 
those plants are capable of as much and as speedy improvement in 
quantity and in quality of fruit as any of our other grains. 

There is a most important practical application of these state- 
ments. With these facts before us, with the real food-producing 
power of a host of plants, native and foreign, abso-lutely unknown, 
what right have we to confine ourselves to a few standard grains, 
and then failing to derive the old time revenues from them, give up 
with the despairing cry that 'farming don't pay?" There are many 
things, once done at a profit, that don't pay now. The successful 
man in such an emergency seeks for soanething in his line of work 
that will pay. If a farmer, he looks about him for a new crop. It is 
to this point that we have been leading. 

A walk through our cities during the autumn and early winter 
will show that large quantities of chestnuts are roasted and sold 
on the important corners. It will be observed that all of these, or 
nearl}' all, are of the large kinds which we collectively call Spanish 
chestnuts. It is impossible to give an exact estimate as to the quan- 
tity which are so sold. The suggestive fact is that most of them are 
imported. Is there any reason why they should be? Rather, is 
there not every reason why they should not be? Already a well- 
established market exists for more than we produce. There is every 
reason to think that the demand for fine chestnuts would increase 
as it has for fine grapes, fine oranges and fine mushrooms. It is the 
invariable law that increase in demand comes with improvement in 
quality. The mere fact that prices fall to such an extent that what 
at first is considered as a luxury becomes later to be regarded as a 
food, enlarges and steadies the demand and usually removes the 
product from an extravagant to a business basis. 

These remarks are suggested by a recent visit to the "chestnut 
orchard" of Mr. Henry M. Engle. The hillside, which, from across 
the Susquehanna, fronts the town of Marietta, is the scene of his 
0])erations. It will probably be admitted by those who notice the 
place from a distance that any. ordinary agricultural operations 
there are out of the question. It certainly will be allowed by those 
who climb the rocky slope that its only natural production is the 
grow^th of timber. Mr. Engle found it covered with a growth of 
thrifty chestnut trees. These he cut down and allowed sprouts to 
arise from the stump. When the sprouts were a year old, into the 
best of them, he placed grafts from the Paragon chestnut. His ob- 
ject being to graft a whole head of the sprout at one time. Of c^ourse 
this implied as a subsequent operation keeping down all lateral 



49 

branches below the graft, which was usually inserted at abO'Ut two 
to four feet from the ground. Mr. Engle has, I believe, employed 
both whip and cleft grafting, but prefers the former. His methods 
involve no departure from rules well known and long practiced, ex- 
cept perfhiaps a little more care. The percentage of successful grafts 
will probably be somewhat smaller than on the ordinary fruit trees. 

The rapidity of growth of a graft on a sprout from a well estab- 
lished root is simply amazing. Fuller, in "The Nut Culturist," page 
79, speaks of such a graft (under his observation) which made dur- 
ing the first season a length of sixty-five feet when the main stem 
and the lateral branches were counted. It all came from a single 
bud. 

A diameter of four inches is no unusual thickness for a paragon 
graft of as many years, O'U a thrifty sprout. In that time it may be 
expected to be in good bearing. Professor Heiges reports that 
when he visited the chestnut orchard of Mr. Engle, "trees grafted 
two years had as high as 35 buds, averaging three chestnuts per 
bur. Trees grafted four years had upward of 500 burs, by actual 
count." It is to be remembered that this was on ground capable 
of producing no other crop. This seems to be the proper place to say 
that when the chestnut timber has been cut and the sprouts started 
which are to produce such a crop of nuts, that if notice be given to 
the county commissioners within one year O'f the date of clearing of 
an intention to reforest the land, that the owner is entitled to a 
small vState bounty for each acie, by act of June 1st, 1887. (!Hee 
Pamphlet Laws, page 287; see also Report of Department of Agri- 
culture, Part II, ]8t»5, Forestry, page 28.) 

TTie price of such, nuts as the Paragon chestnut will of course vary 
for each season. This year, in November, the writer paid for half a 
bushel at the rate of seven and one-half dollars a bushel. 

It may be fairly doubted whether it is best to attempt growing 
chestnuts for market on this plan— that is on the forestry basis. 
Will one not obtain a larger yield O'f large, sound fruit if the trees 
be isolated (or at least not in close clumps) and the ground beneath 
rhem kept clear of leaves and underbrush? This inquiry is suggested 
by the fact that such trees are less infested by fruit-destroying in- 
sects than those in forests, and furthermore, that where the ground 
can be kept clean and clear of underbrush, one has a better chance 
of destroying a large percentage of worms which would become the 
insect parents of the following year's worms. 

Whether or not we could hope for an effectual pro'tection against 
these pests if all diseased chestnuts were promptly collected and 
burned is yet a question; but there can be no doubt that such sys- 
tematic destruction of the infested fruit would speedily decrease the 
(juantity of fruit injured. There are early and Inio bi'oods of chest- 
4 



50 

nut worms. It would probably be wise to j^atlier the fruit as soou 
as possible after it is ripe and keep it in a damp, cool place, whence 
all worms and diseased fruit could be removed and promptly de- 
stroyed. 

It is unfortunate that as described above, laud otherwise worthless, 
can be made to produce a va]nal)le ci'op of cliestnuts after we havcj 
realized one pro^fit on the timber. It would, liowever, be very unfor- 
tunate if it were supposed that such land only should be used for 
chestnut culture. The fact is that it might be made even more profit- 
able to raise cliestnut trees from the seed and graft fkem with the 
variety we desire to raise, and allow these trees to stand where they 
had room to spread and wherc^ they could Ix^ under our immediat(^ 
care. The yield of some such, mature trees is fabulous. I have in mind 
one tree, about seventy years old, still in its prime, with many years 
apparently ahead of it, w^hich in one season bore thirty-six dollars' 
worth of fruit, besides what was used by the family of the owner. 

The relative hardiness of the Paragon stock as compared with the 
native wild chestnut may yet be probably regarded as no't wholly 
settled. It seems necessary to repeat most positively the well known 
truth that no one should plant Paragon or other large variety under 
the impr(^ssion that the resultant trees will produce fruit of a like 
size. If such happens it will be unusual. Grafting is the only 
method of certainly securing the special quality of fruit desired. 
Though it is to be remembered that even failure to raise trees which 
will produce f4'uit like that from which the trees came may occa- 
sionally, rarely indeed, produce an even better fruit. Hence trees 
grown (ungrafted) from the nut should be carefully studied. They 
may become the parents of valuable varieties. On the whole, it might 
be considered a promising venture for one to plant our native chest- 
nuts where you desir*^ them to stand, on cleared but waste land, and 
subsequently graft them with such a variety as the Ridgely or the 
Paragon. The Scott chestnut is said to have great merit. Among 
its good ])oints it is claimed to be early bearing and to have a re- 
markable freedom from insect attacks. 

There is one point especially worthy of mention; i. e., that occa- 
sionally a variety with new and sterling qualities springs from our 
common wild chestnut. There are some such instances which are 
well know^n, for example, where the fruit was of exceptionally large 
size and matured very early. Such a combination of qualities would 
be sure to find a sale, especially if added to them were the cliaracter- 
istic of hardiness. 

Ho'W to keep chestnuts safely over winter for spring planting is 
by no means so easy as some would have us believe. It requires | 

judgment, and I had almost said skill, even when it is remembered 
that when the essential conditions of success are to keep the nuts 



51 

from moulding in tlie autumn or early winter, to keep them damp, 
but not wet, and to keep them cold, avoiding sudden changes of 
temperature as much as possible. Mr. Fuller gives in his book on nut 
culture very exact directions. Take only sound nuts. Provide a box 
with a bottom pierced with small holes, which are to be covered with 
a bit of pottery. Put a layer of chestnuts on a layer of "moist, 
sharp sand" which is an inch deep. Then another layer of sand, and 
on top of this another layer of chestnuts, and so on. Then cover with 
sand two inches deep to allow for settling. Cover box with wire 
vnetting or strips of board to keep the mice out. Bury the box in 
fsome well-drained place in the ground, covering it with a foot of 
leaves. Some friends of mine scrape away leaves from under a tree, 
place the nuts on top of the ground and cover them with leaves and 
leave them until spring. 

I am of the opinion, however, that if one wants to plant but a hun- 
dred or two chestnuts that he will have no cause to regret it if he 
prepares his bed in the autumn, makes a shallow furrow, places his 
chestnuts in it, covering them loosely with leaves an inch deep and 
then gives them a covering of half an inch of loose, rich soil. Mak- 
ing allowances for failures from animals, etc., I have about eighty 
per cent, of the nuts so planted to grow. Never allow a seed chest- 
nut to become drv. 



52 



TWO WEEDS. 



We seldom reco-gnize a plant as a weed 'until it has become so 
common as to threaten some industry. In other words, it has al- 
ready become a common nuisance before any war is commenced 
against it. 

Ft may seem like a contradiction in terms, but it may fairly be 
stated that the proper time to fight a weed is before it becomes a 
weed. 

Such a ciance occurs now. From our Southern border a plant has 
invaded the State. Originally it came from Europe. It is exceedingly 
common in ]>()rtions of Virginia, especially in the Shenandoah valley, 
and is there known as blue thistle, or occasionally is expressively 
named blue devils. To botanists it is known as Echium vulgare. The 
illustration accompanying is taken from life, and is a very satisfac- 
tory representation of the plant. 

The blue thistle shows a marked pi'eference for soils associated 
with limestone rocks, and of such soils it is not unlikely to take 
complete i)Ossessiou, unless they are frequently under cultivation. 

It is true that up to this time it has not become a serious nuisance 
in this State. It is equally true that it will probably become such 
unless its increase is promptly prevented. Thus far it does not ap- 
pear to have advanced more than seventy-tive miles north of ouq 
southern border, and possibly its further advance will be slow, be- 
cause it must adapt itself to the more rigorous conditions of a 
Northern climate. Under any view of the case, now is the time to 
extirpate the plant, before each of the thousands of seeds becomes 
the parent of another thousand. 

The plant is biennial; that is, its principal function during tlie 
first season is to produce a strong rO'Ot, well stored with nourishing 
matter. From this root a vigorous flowering and fruiting stem will 
be developed during the second summer. 

The remedies are, frequent plowing and thick seeding, if the plant 
has already obtained a considerable hold on the farm. Or if it is just 
making an appearance, it may be headed off early in the second 
season by cutting the stem from the roots by a spud or pick-axe in- 
serted just below the surface of the ground. It would doubtless also 
be possible to destroy it by repeated cutting or pulling, if these were 
commenced before the plant blossomed. 







BLUE THISTLE. 
Echiuni Vulgar e. 



53 

The blue thistle may be briefly described thus: Herb, one to two 
feet high, one or more stalks from same root; rough, bristly-hairy; 
leaves narrowly lance-shaped, without footstalks; flowers, blue at 
first, then more or less pink, funnel-shaped, with a somewhat irreg- 
ular, lobed margin, from half to three-quarters of an inch long, some- 
what crowded on branches which are often coiled at the tip; four 
small roughened seeds in the bottom of the flower; blooms from June 
to September, or even later. 

The second weed to which attention is called is popularly known 
in Pennsylvania as yellow daisy, brown betty, wild sun-flower. 
Kotanically it is called Rudbeckia hirta. This plant is said to have 
been brought from the Mississippi valley to the East in clover 
seed. It also grows naturally in Western New York, and hence 
may be said to prefer a climate somewhat cooler than that of 
this State. Its increase here has been so slow and its advance so in- 
sidious that our farmers apparently have failed to recognize its dan- 
gerous character. But it is each year becoming better adapted to 
our conditions of soil and climate, and as it matures a large number 
of seeds, it is merely a question of time before its presence will be 
severely felt. 

Of all the weeds which of recent years have invaded our State, this 
is the one for whose continued existence there is the least excuse. 
It is so conspicuous that it compels notice, and its multiplication has 
been thus far so slow that there can be no reason for allowing it to 
become a source of trouble. Yet its real character and power for 
harm are evident when it is noted that in the states north and east of 
us it is so abundant, just before the season of hay making, that it 
literally colors whole fields of grass yellow. 

I do not remember to have seen a field of grass in this State from 
which it could not have been readily removed by pulling or digging. 
Its eradication seems to be a question of now or never. I make this 
statement in view of the fact that it continues to increase, and that 
it has already become a nuisance in Ohio and New York. 

It may be described thus: Biennial herb, one to two and a-half feet 
high, rough-linirv. leaves narrowly oblong, without footstalks, lower 
ones more or less distinctly three-ribbed ; flowers from an inch and 
a-half to four inches across, yellow, with a dark brown, convex or 
conical centre. (Like a small sun-flower and having its circumference 
composed of about fourteen yellow leaves.) If cut too early in the 
season it is likely to grow again and still produce a crop of flowers 
and seeds. It is becoming very popular with flower gatherers, who 
should by all means be encouraged to pull it. It blooms from June 
to August. 



54 



LOSSES BY FIRES IN PENNSYLVANIA IN THE YEAR 
1896, SO FAR AS HEARD FROM. 



By the burning of the Capitol building on February -d, the mass 
of material which we had collected, at no little expense and labor, 
bearing upoo forest fires, as well as upon the quantity and kinds of 
timber cut during the year 189G, were destroyed. But a few hours 
before the fire Mr. Conklin and T had completed our estimates upon 
data at hand. These lay on my table and were rescued. I make tlie 
following very brief statement: 

Number of acres burned over in 1890, 178,982 

Quantity of timber burned, feet board measure 121,752,822 

Quantity of manufactured lumber burned, feet board 

measure, 7,391, OSO 

Cords of bark burned, 30,7G4 

Cost of suppressing fo-rest fires |21,2(i9 .00 

Total money value of actual ])i<»iK'rty burned, |557,056 OO 

1 desire lo add that these figures are clearly below Ihe actiml facts; 
because: First — There was on the part of those who answered our 
inquiries a very reniarkalilc absence of anything which looked like 
exaggeration. Second — Many of those furnishing information made 
no estimate of the value of the time spent by themselves and their 
neighbors in extinguishing fires. Third — In many instances there was 
no estimate of the money lost by burning of young timber. Fourth — 
Because from many regions in which it is known there were serious 
fires we were unable to obtain any re])lies to our inquiries. This is 
the more a matter of regret because the information sought was 
wholly in the interest of the sufferers. 

In the above estimate we have not included tlie destruction of 
leaf mould and actual soil. These, as a matter of fact, exceed in value 
the timber destroyed, because its restoration is exceedingly slow-, and 
without it reproduction of valuable timber often becomes very slow 
and in some instances impossible. 

The state forests of Now York, under fire warden protection, had 
burned over in 189.") (a mucli drier season than 189G) one acre out of 
M7^, whereas Pennsylvania in 1896. Avithout fire wardens, had in its 
woodland areas one acre out of 51 burned over. 

The second annual rc^poi t of the Ccmimissioners of Fisheries, Game 



55 

and Forests (lS9Gj for Xew York (page 07) is very explicit, and de- 
clares that "ten years' experience in the matter has demonstrated 
that the present law relating to the protection of our woodlands from 
fire is a practical one. We have reason to believe that the wide- 
spread and disastrous fires which threatened the existence of our for- 
ests at one time will not recur. We expect that small burnings on 
private lands will continue to occur, and so there remains the diffi- 
cult task of regulating the use of fire by land owners on their own 
property. In this work we are assisted by public sentiment in the 
forest towns, due to the law which provides that each town must pay 
half the expense of fighting and extinguishing woodland fires. There 
has, accordingly, arisen in each town a sort of censorship on the part 
of the citizens and taxpaj'ers which acts as a deterrent in the care- 
less use of fire by the thoughtless and ignorant members of the com- 
munity." 

It may help to the comprehension of this State's actual loss by 
fire if I were to add that the area burned over in 1896 was equal 
to a strip of land one mile wide and 280 miles long, and that it would 
require a wagon train of 112 miles in length to haul the bark so de- 
stroyed. If the bark were ranked up four feet wide and four feet 
high it would form a line almost 47 miles long. 



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